Cold as EICE
by Elder Hunstman
Summary: A boy wanting to hide from his mother. A orphaned Faunus girl wanting a new start. A optimistic boy wanting to shake his family reputation. And a girl hoping to escape her fathers wishes.
1. Beacon in the distance

Chapter 1

Beacon in the distance

 **It occurs to me now that early on in writing this story I failed to describe the main character's appearances effectively, leaving lots of blank spaces in how they looked. This is a list of the basic appearance of the main characters, I'll still leave some blank spaces for the sake of letting you make your own picture.**

 **Erik  
** **Blue eyes  
Short, jet black hair  
Chiselled features**

 **Isaac  
** **Forest green eyes  
Glasses  
Round features  
Brown hair**

 **Clara  
** **Dark blue eyes  
Auburn hair  
Sharp features**

 **Elith** **Ginger hair  
Yellow eyes  
Defined features**

* * *

She was looking at me again, the girl across from me that is. I doubt it means anything but with my Mother after me anything is a possibility.  
"Are you staring for a reason or am I just handsome?" I say jokingly.  
"No, you are just glancing out the window and across your shoulder, like you're worried about something." She says as she continues to curiously look at me, I decide to ignore the statement and look out the window. The landscape rushed by the train I was seated in, I would likely be captivated by it if I wasn't concerned about being stabbed any second.  
"Are you normally quiet or did I hit a nerve?" She asks. "What's your name?"  
"Erik," I respond casually.  
"Where are you headed?" She presses. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to."  
"Vale."  
"Who's got you looking over your shoulder?"  
"You ask a lot of questions."  
"I'll stop now."  
"Thank you." With that discussion over I continued regularly checking my surroundings. After what seemed like an hour of only hearing the rhythmic sounds of the rails and the chatter of fellow passengers a sound interrupted the monotony. A heavy thud from somewhere towards the back, I most definitely was not the only one to hear this as a couple others, including miss 20 questions before me.

There was a bit of chatter about the noise at first but then it died down only to be rekindled by a new noise, a scream. The chatter bubbled up again but when it died down it was dead silent this time, a silencing shroud of fear had laid itself across this room and no one wanted to break it. Seconds passed, then minutes then we heard the click of the door, I reached underneath my emerald cloak and rested my hand on my bastard sword Homicida. The door to our section of the train opened shortly after I managed to pull my hood up. Five armed men entered the room I quickly could tell they were White Fang due to the masks and the all too obvious bunny ears on one of them.  
"We are looking for a boy!" One of them shouted. "His name is Erik Fall and he is 17." Nobody said anything, I kept my grip tight on the sword hilt and prepared for a fight.  
"I did see him but he started running when he heard you coming, he went that way." The girl in front of me began pointing to the door at the other side. They seemed to buy it and moved in that direction, meanwhile I stared at the girl who had just saved me some trouble.  
"Thank you, but I feel like this train isn't so welcoming right now, so I must be off." And with that, I got up and walked out the door and leapt over the railing into the forest below.  
"I really hope Beacon isn't far from here," I said shortly after landing.

* * *

Clothes? Check. Knixes (shotgun daggers)? Check. Wallet? Check. Etcetera? Check. I had already checked and double checked back home that I had my stuff together, I was definitely ready to go. And at that moment I realized that I had no idea where the ship to beacon was, I looked around for someone who looked like they would be heading there too. My eyes shifted around until they fell upon a ginger holding a massive grey and pink warhammer.  
"Hey! Uh, do you know where the ship to Beacon is?" I asked after running up to her.  
"Oh hello~!" She responded. "I was just heading there myself actually, the names Nora, nice to meet you." She extended her hand which I gladly shook.  
"If introductions are in order then my name is Isaac, pleasure to meet you." She quite suddenly slipped her hand from the shake and rather forcefully poked his nose.  
"Boop! Catch me if you can~!" And with that Nora started darting through the streets.  
"Oh, you did not just start a boop war with Isaac Blythe." With a sudden burst of speed, I began running through the streets and hunting down the ginger girl. After a little while, I caught up to her and found her chatting animatedly with a tall black haired fellow. I silently approached and booped her nose before she suspected a thing.

"Hey!" She cried indignantly as she started to try and get me back but to no avail as I kept blocking her jabs.  
"You started it," I said simply, the guy she had been talking to turned his head to look at me which revealed a small streak of a pink in his hair.  
"The names lie, lie ren," Ren said. "I assume you're the new friend Nora met."  
"Yeah, the name's Isaac nice to meet you," I said  
"Come on, the ship shouldn't be far." Ren said as he just started walking down the street.

* * *

"Yes, I'm sure I have everything, sir," I said into my scroll. "I have my gauntlets, my hook, my swords and plenty of spare clothes." Reading out this list in public was getting me more dirty looks than more dirty looks than I normally received.  
"Do you think she's here to kill someone?"  
"She's probably a White Fang agent."  
These were among some of the things I was hearing people say as they walked by me. But that was just day to day things one hears when having cat ears and tail protruding all too obviously. It could be worse, I could've been sent to Atlas for example. With a heavy sigh I got up, grabbed my case and walked into the dust shop I was seated outside of.  
"Excuse me could you fill these with fire, wind, and ice?" I asked the man behind the counter as I set downs three containers on his counter.  
"That would be 55 Lien." He said after examining the capacity of the bottles, I set down the money and he went to work filling them up. As I look around the shop I catch a guy looking at me, he had an emerald-coloured cloak and beneath that, I saw the glint of some armour, out of curiosity I approach him.  
"Hello," I said. "What are you looking at me for?"  
"I was just noting your attire and weapons, I assume you're going to Beacon?" He responded.  
"Yes I am, the names Clara Lynn," I said, he straightened up a little and pulled down his hood revealing his jet black hair and dark blue eyes.  
"My names Erik," Erik explained.  
"Your vials are filled, mam." The shopkeeper called, I waved goodbye to Erik and vacated the premises.

As I walked many more interesting people obviously making their way to Beacon crossed paths with her. There was a brown haired boy with a bow that split into two serrated scimitars and a blonde girl with what looked like one hundred knives strapped to her. After wandering the streets I finally came to the large carrier meant to take us to the academy.

* * *

Why is it that I can't go anywhere without guys staring at me? I don't give them any reason to, I'm not a Faunus and I certainly don't dress to impress so what's the big deal? Maybe they will look the other way if I do... this. I pulled out my dual Sanguinems (serrated kukris.) and proceeded to sharpen them, apparently, I looked menacing enough and people started to stop looking so intently at me. Satisfied with this accomplishment I sheathed them and proceeded down the road to my destination. But a short while later my progress was halted by a crowd of people watching something, my curiosity piqued I decided to see what the big fuss was about. One quick look both summed it up and slightly disappointed me, it was just the site of a dust shop robbery.  
"Good thing I didn't need a refill." I murmured to no one in particular, with my detour ended I continued my search for the transit site. And after a bit too much wandering and wrong turns I finally found myself among a crowd of kids my age waiting outside a large transport ship. I was sure I was in the right place as everyone had at least one weapon strapped to them.

Unfortunately, there were already guys looking at me, but before they could walk over to say anything someone called for all students to board.  
"Finally." She heard multiple people exclaim simultaneously, I quickly slipped on board and seated myself in a corner of the ship. The last thing I wanted was to spend the entire ride listening to some guy flirt with me, so I buried my face in one the many books I had packed. But someone found me anyway, he approached me and before he could even open his mouth I activated my semblance causing two clones of myself on either side of me.  
"Sorry, the seats are taken." We said simultaneously, the guy got the hint and walked off and I melded my clones back to me. The rest of the ride I kept getting stares but no one approached me. Once I felt like I didn't have much to worry about I began looking at the people around me. There was a blond girl messing with a girl who looked much too young to be here and there was also a brown haired kid who appeared to be well occupied keeping some ginger girl from slapping him? Poking? I really couldn't tell what she was trying to do from my vantage point. I started to walk around but that thought was cut short as we arrived at Beacon.

Authors notes  
I hope you guys enjoyed this first chapter, I've only done light development on these characters and I hope to develop them more as I go along.


	2. Sounds of the forest

Chapter 2

Sounds of the forest

Erik, Isaac, Clara, Elith, Beacon academy entrance

* * *

As the new students began exiting the ship and roaming around the general responses of students seemed split among these. Those who were looking around the academy with looks of awe burned into their faces, those who were making a beeline for the main hall and lastly the people who were left with little idea of where they were supposed to go. Elith wanted to avoid the large groups roving around and started swiftly making her way to the main hall.

"Ow!" Elith and Clara said simultaneously as the ran into each other, causing the two of them to fall to the ground.

"I'm so sorry!" Clara managed to squeak out after pulling herself up, she then offered her hand to Elith.

"No problem, don't worry about it." Elith said quickly, letting Clara help her up.

"My names Clara Lynn, you?" She said.

"Elith Celadon, pleasure to meet you." The redhead responded, after that the two of them proceeded to the main hall together.

Erik had absolutely no idea where he was supposed to go and found himself wandering around the impressive structures of the school. Isaac was wandering as well, though as more of a choice than not knowing where to go, he knew that the actual orientation was later and that the meeting in the hall was just a speech introducing them to the school. In the end everyone found their way to the main hall, those who were late discovered that the night was to be spent in the ballroom in sleeping bags. Everyone picked a spot and began getting ready to sleep, Erik passed some time chatting with the people until he eventually fell asleep. Clara sat down on a roll next to Elith and the two of them started maintenance on their weapons.

"Do you really know how to use all three of those?" Elith said.

"Yes, I've spent a lot of time training with them." Clara responded as she moved on from her Gauntlets to her two scimitars. Isaac mingled with fellow students, but a after a while he got bored and went on a walk of the grounds for a while. After exploring for what seemed like an hour he returned to the ballroom to find that pretty much everyone had gone to sleep, so he lied down on his roll and fell asleep.

* * *

Erik, The cliffs above Emerald Forest

* * *

Though I had expected teams to be formed, I did not expect pairs to be formed just by eye contact. what if I bumped into someone who is cruel or simply inadequate? There were just way too many problems with this system to count, but rules are rules and I will have to tolerate whomever I met first. I decided to look at the other students who were preparing to be launched, my eyes set upon a few people but no one that had made any real impressions on him. Then again, I haven't seen any of them in a fight before. But enough about them, right now I need to think about..

"Woah!" I exclaimed, I seem to have lost track of time and it had been my turn to launch, I managed to right myself and began to focus on landing. I reach over to my left gauntlet and swiftly traced the middle line of the painted symbol on it and the gauntlet suddenly expanded into a massive great shield. I braced for a few seconds before I impacted with the first tree, the tree cracked from the force and began to fall. I kept my shield up and used it to slide down the trunk, after landing I turned the shield back into my armguard.

"That could have gone smoother." I said to no one in particular.

* * *

Isaac

* * *

"Woohoo!" I shouted gleefully as I sailed through the air, I have no idea why but free falling has always made me really cheerful. I reach down to my belt to pull out one of my dust grenades _(Isaacs dust grenades are extremely sturdy and can be reused after 'detonation' as they only vent out the energy of the contained dusts.)_ which solely contained wind dust. I wait until I am only ten feet above the forest floor before I open a single vent on the gernades. A gust of wind started spewing from it slowing my decent until I easily touched ground and rolled.

"I really hope we can do these things beyond training." I said to myself as I refilled the gernade with lightning.

* * *

Clara

* * *

Remember, aim above the target and the pick will hit. With that thought I threw my pick just above the tree branch and sure enough embedded itself into the wood. Gripping the attached rope I braced for when the slack would run out . When the rope tightened I curled up for extra momentum and swung, I looked ahead and saw the sturdy branch of a neighboring tree coming into reach. I pulled one hand off the rope and pulled myself up and with some effort I managed to tug my pick out of the other branch. Then I glanced down to the dizzying heights that I was at.

"Now for a way down." I said to myself quietly.

* * *

Elith

* * *

'Feet tucked in, body forward and arms at the side.' I thought to myself as I prepared to be launched, managing to keep my form I was launched over the vast forest before me. I examined the landscape before me, If it werent for the rare gap of a clearing one could fall under the impression that there was no forest floor beneath the deep green tree tops. Taking my mind back to the task of landing I prepared my semblance for use. I swiftly approximated where I would land and four exact copies of me materialized there, I slammed into the first two which slowed me down enough for the next two to catch me. I then dispelled them and began making plans to reach this temple.

* * *

Erik, The Emerald forest

* * *

After taking about three minutes to get debri and splinters off of me I finally raised my head to view the area around me. Just enough light leaked through the leaves so that you could see, but the lighting was still very dim. Keeping Homicida drawn and ready, I proceeded deeper into the forest.

"Hello?" I shouted out, I waited for a few seconds and received no response. "Oh well, I'm just going to keep walking now." And so I did, and after walking for a while I finally came across something beyond trees, thorns and vines, a Beowolf. Well, actually a pack of fourteen Beowolves, but who assumed that there is ever going to be one Beowolf. I slowly made my way toward the clearing that they had gathered at and flipped a switch on Homicida. The blade immediately began splintering into pieces and linking together until what I held had changed from a sword to a eight foot long whip made of sharp splintered steel. I swiftly rushed out and swung the whip in a wide arc in front of me. It easily tore through two of the beasts causing a crimson spray to splash out and lodged itself into the hide of a third it howled in pain as its blood dripped from the wound.

I flipped the switch again and held on tightly to the handle as it pulled me swiftly toward the Beowolf as Homicida reconstructed itself. With my full weight behind it, the reformed blade easily drove its length through the monster. I deftly removed the blade from the dissipating corpse and immediately brought it down on the neck of another one that was rushing me, decapitating it instantly. I reached over to my left hand armguard and this time traced the outer circle of its symbol. The gauntlet swiftly expanded into a medium sized buckler, I immediately put it to use by bashing away another wolf.

"Try harder than that!" I shouted at them. "At this pace I could fight you all day!" My only response was more growls from the pack. I quickly stabbed the grounded Grimm and rushed to meet the next two snarling beast rushing my position. I kept my sword up and the first one comically ran straight into it as he lunged at me, then I easily ripped my bloodstained blade out of the monster and into the skull of the next one.

"Anyone else!" I called to the rest of them, they continued to only growl. I turned my blade back into a whip and rushed them with the shards clattering behind me, before I reach the group I insert a red crystal into Homicidas hilt. The whip suddenly burst into flames as I swung it forth and through through three of the Grimm and lodging into and killing a fourth beast. I prepared to strike towards the last four Grimm but a noise diverted my attention, along with the Grimms. Something large was making its way to the clearing.

"Don't be an Ursa, don't be an Ursa." I repeated to myself, but to my dismay a average sized Ursa breaks through through the tree line. But I notice that a few things are off about the monster, first of all, the blood red eyes were now an icy blue and second of all a girl was riding on its back. The Ursa swung its paw at the nearest Beowulf leaving a deep red gash on its back and killing it instantly. It then lunged forward and clamped its mouth around the neck of another one, ripping a large portion of the Grimms neck out. The girl then leaped off of her mount and landed smoothly and deftly whipped a sniper rifle off her back and blasted off the head of another Grimm. She then rushed the last Beowolf and uppercutted it, causing a cluster of ice to lock the head in place. She then quickly split her rifle into two matching swords and decapitated the creature. Clara then turned her head to view me, my eyes locked with her dark blue eyes and she smiled. She was wearing a black combat skirt with yellow trim and a simple yellow shirt.

"You're the guy from the dust shop right?" She asked.

"Yeah, do you have an idea of where the temple might be?" I said.

* * *

Isaac

* * *

"Ok, I am officially lost." I moaned in defeat as my path once again ended in a spot with even more trees that looked exactly the same as the past few million trees he had passed. This whole time I haven't run into a single person or Grimm or anything other than these godforsaken trees. I was prepared to just sit down until something interesting happened, but a loud noise caught my attention. It was a screech that I quickly identified as a Nevermores call, this noise was immediately followed by someone shouting. I rushed in the direction of the sounds and drew my Knixes from their hidden sheaths on my sides. I came upon the edge of a forest clearing and beheld the scene that presented itself. A redheaded girl wielding two oddly shaped blades was facing off with a young nevermore. The girl quickly rushed the Beast and slid beneath its claws and swung up at the belly. Some blood splashed on her from the wound as she finished sliding behind the Grimm. I chose this moment to pitch in by throwing my lightning dust grenade at the raven.

"Watch out!" I shouted to the girl, she spotted what I had thrown and dived into the tree line right before the capsule smacked into the face of the creature. The vents opened and a split second later a clap of thunder was heard as electricity arced through the body of the Nevermore. After twitching for a little bit the young Raven fell to the forest floor, dead. I looked at the redhead and my eyes locked with her yellow eyes. He swiftly examined her, she was rather thin and she was wearing blue jeans with a hoodie that seemed to be a size or two too large for her.

"Ahoy!" I said as I jogged over to her, she gave a sigh and extended her hand to him.

"Hello, my name is Elith Celadon." Elith replied, they shook hands.

"My names Isaac Blythe." I said, and with that we began to figure out where the temple might be.

* * *

Clara

* * *

After navigating down the tree I quickly set off north in search of the temple that we were supposed to find. I did however have a secondary goal in mind, I wanted to find a Grimm so I could set myself up with a mount. My wish was granted surprisingly swiftly as after only five minutes of searching I found myself in a clearing that had three Ursa resting within it. One was rather small and only had an armored face, the next one had scattered armor here and there on its body. The final one had plenty of armor but also bore many spines on its back which discourages me from riding on it.

"Ok, the medium Ursa it is." I say to myself as I stealthily make my way towards the youngest beast. I raise my swords and bring them down on the Grimms neck cleanly slicing the head off, I backstep to avoid the Crimson spray that springs from the corpse. This act failed to go without notice however, the other two Ursa had been alerted and were now rushing my position. I quickly sheathed my swords and clipped the sheathed blades together to form my sniper rifle. I released four shots toward the large Ursa, two of which found their target.

The beast grunted in pain but continued barreling towards me, I rolled under the medium one and punched one of its back legs. My gloves released some ice dust causing the leg to freeze over, locking the bear in place. I then rushed the older Grimm and released a few more shots from my rifle at it before splitting back into my swords. The sheaths fell off the blades as I began swinging my blade overhead towards the monster, the blades clashed with the swiping paw but I managed to hold off the strike and slip my blade between the claws. I twisted the blades as they cut into the beast causing them to remove the claw between them. While the Ursa was distracted by this pain I turned my attention to my original target. I ran towards it and jumped up to grab the monsters neck, I managed to pull myself up and stabilize myself. I pressed my hands into the back of the monstrosities head and activated my semblance. I felt part of my strength leave me as a portion of my aura severed itself and infiltrated the empty void of the Ursa. This sliver of my soul quickly made the beast a vessel of my will as its burning red eyes turned into a cold blue.

I began seeing double, viewing the world through my eyes as well as that of the Ursas. I closed my own eyes and began having my Ursa Rush the older Grimm, the sheer weight of my beast caused the opponent to fall over and reveal its vulnerable neck. Quickly and mercilessly I ripped its throat out, ending my preys life.

"Well, that could have been executed smoother." I sighed.

* * *

Elith

* * *

I looked at the guy who was going to be my everpresent partner for the next four years. My only immediate problem was that he was male, but he wasn't giving me any looks so I hoped that he wouldn't end up trying anything. His attire was pretty similar to mine, he was wearing a hoody and some sweatpants and a pair of glasses were resting on his nose in front of his forest green eyes.

"So where do you think that this temple might be?" I asked Isaac.

"Well, I believe Ozpin said that it was towards the other side of the forest." He replied, with that he started walking towards the other side of the clearing. With an impatient sigh I began following along behind him. The two of us started picking our way through the woods, slowly but surely making our way to our goal.

 **Authors notes**

 **I hope you liked this one, I tried to show off the combat capabilities of my characters a bit in this chapter. Unfortunately it became a bit too long and I cut it off a bit early on Elith, but trust me that she is going to have more action next time. Once again, feel free to leave helpful reviews and requests if you enjoy this series.**


	3. Game of chess

Chapter 3

Game of chess

Erik, Clara The emerald forest

* * *

"So, how exactly is it that you are controlling this thing?" Erik asked as he watched the trees rushing by from his position on the Ursas back.

"It's my semblance, I can influence creatures that have auras weaker than mine and I can force part of my aura to enter Grimm." Clara responded.

"So you take part of your soul and place it in monsters?" The cloaked boy said.

"Not permanently, I can remove my aura from the beast quite easily." The Faunus replied, she then rubbed her ears awkwardly. "But you're right, it does sound kind of sinister when you think about it like that." It was silent for a little while well, as silent as a moment can be while there is an Ursa barreling through the forest.

"So, where are you from?" Erik inquired.

"I come from Vacuo, what about you?" She replied.

"I'm from Mistral, fingers crossed that I don't find my way back." He joked, the awkward 'silence' resumed for a while longer as tried to think up more questions.

"Did you name your weapon?" Clara asked him, Erik looked at his sword and back at her.

"My sword is Homicida and my shields are called Invicta, what about yours?" The cloaked boy asked.

"I never really thought to name my weapons, it just never crossed my mind to." She said, she was about to ask another question but her focus was quickly diverted as she had to make the Ursa stop before running them off a cliff. She looked out on what it overlooked, it was a large field that had a small crumbling structure towards the center of it.

"I think that's what we're looking for." Erik stated simply.

* * *

Isaac, Elith

* * *

"I would like to submit that I am having many second thoughts about this right now!" Elith shouted as she and Isaac free fell from a cliff edge, Elith was being carried on Isaac's back while he held one of his grenades in front of himself.

"Oh calm down, we'll be fine." Isaac replied assuringly, as he had done before he began unleashing wind from his vessel until the descent was slowed enough for him to land lightly. "Told you."

"Next time, tell me when the plan involves free falling, as well as what the plan is." She grumbled at him, they continued to make their way towards the ruined building that simply had to be where the relics were. They were about halfway to the dilapidated structure when a massive noise demanded their attention, a large Ursa leapt from a low cliff and landed with a massive thud. The beast then made a beeline for the ruins and sat down on its hindquarters like a dog would, two students slid off the monster and entered the ruins.

"Who are they?" Isaac said to Elith.

"I don't know, but did they seriously just ride an Ursa here like its a trained horse?" She replied.

"Yes, yes they did." He stated simply, they continued running until they reached the temple.

* * *

Erik, Isaac, Clara, Elith

* * *

"When did chess pieces become classified as 'relics'?" Erik asked no one in particular.

"Do we just take one?" Clara said, Erik swiped a black knight from one of the pedestals.

"I would assume so." He responded, they swiftly turned to exit the building only to be greeted by two other students.

"Hey!" The tall boy called to them, "The names Isaac, want to team up for a bit?"

"Sure, I'm Clara and this is Erik." Clara answered, Erik grabbed the second black knight and tossed it to the ginger girl standing next to Isaac.

"Catch!" Erik said, her hand whipped up and snatched the piece "It's not important at the moment, but I want to test a theory."

"My names Elith, what is the theory?" Elith said suspiciously.

"I really don't like submitting incomplete ideas." The cloaked boy said, he then walked outside and climbed onto the Ursas back to wait on the others. Clara followed while the others stayed back and eyed the beast suspiciously.

"Is it really safe?" Isaac asked.

"Yeah, it is one hundred percent under my control." The Faunus replied, they all mounted the Grimm and set off for the nearest border of the forest.

"I'm from Vacuo, where are you two from?" Clara asked Isaac and Elith.

"Really?" Isaac replied excitedly, "I'm from Vacuo to!"

"Cool, are you having trouble adjusting to this climate as well?" The faunus inquired.

"Yeah, the lack of blistering heat has definitely been different." He responded.

"Im from Mistral, a swampy, dangerous place that procures the question 'why are you living here?'" Erik submitted, Isaac gave him a confused look at the negative remark that had been needlessly procured.

"I came here from Atlas, I never could deal with some of their policies." Elith said dryly, the ride continued in silence until they found themselves at the cliffs surrounding the vast forest. They all slid off the Ursa and started to sort out how they were going to scale the cliff. Clara extended her hand towards the monster and her aura was ripped from the vessel causing all light to go out from behind the creatures eyes. The Ursa collapsed to the ground with a massive thud, dead as a doornail, Clara then approached the cliff fave and pulled out her pick. She aimed it towards the top of the cliff and pressed a button on it, the blade launched off of the grip and sank into the cliff face just a little bit under the edge.

"Come on, we don't have all day!" Clara shouted at the others as she gestured at the rope that had trailed from the pick.

* * *

Erik, Beacon team ceremony

* * *

"Erik Fall, Isaac Blythe, Clara Lynn, Elith Celadon, the four of you retrieved the black knight pieces." Ozpin announced. "From this day forward you will work together as team Ice, led by Erik Fall." I felt like I should something but I froze up, Clara smiled and clapped and Isaac gave me a rather heavy handed pat on the back while Elith merely looked slightly disappointed. We walked of the stage and took a seat next to the other formed teams, I looked at Elith.

"That was my theory." I whispered to her.

"What?" She asked.

"To see if 1) teams of four were being made and 2) to see if those pairs were made by picking the same relic." I explained, she looked impressed and returned her gaze to the stage.

* * *

Elith, EICE Dorm room

* * *

I yawned and blinked a few times as I woke up and got myself oriented, I looked around and saw that the others were still asleep. I checked my traveling bag to make sure all my stuff was still in it and noticed a second case at the foot of my bed. Inside the case was six sets of the beacon school uniform, I frowned at the skirts of the uniform.

"I hope that those aren't necessary." I muttered to myself, my eyes suddenly fell upon a similar case that was at the foot of Erik's bed and a sly grin grew on my face.

 **Authors notes**

 **I'm enjoying this so far and I hope that you are as well, feel free to leave a review or a request if you would like to.**


	4. Classes

Chapter 4

Classes

Erik, ?

* * *

I walked through the familiar street and passed the familiar shops, the day was going along as my Fridays usually do. The day was rather cold so I tugged my cloak a bit tighter around me and turned into an alley for some extra protection from the wind. Then I waited for what I knew would come, a call from my mother. I knew that she always had someone watching me and that any second now she would call to ask why I was in the alley, so was the way my life functioned. Five minutes passed and I had received no notifications on my scroll, it actually began to concern me. I grabbed my scroll and started to call her but a rough voice interrupted me.

"I wouldn't call her right now kid." The voice whispered, this statement was followed by a heavy thud. Both of these sounds made me jump and whirl around to view the speaker, I turned to see a man wearing some strange attire with what looked like a scarf covering all of his face aside from his eyes. The thud appeared to not have been from him sitting down but from the unconscious body that he had dropped beside him.

"This man seemed like he was tailing you." The man stated. "I thought it would be best to take him out before speaking with you."

"Speak with me?" I said suspiciously. "Do I know you."

"I wish that you did, but circumstances have prevented me from meeting you." He responded. "I'm your father." Before I had a chance to say anything he threw a large leather duffel bag on the ground between us. He then swiftly ran off, I raced after him and found the street to be empty aside from a few animals. I walked back into the alleyway and unzipped the bag, inside was a large red tinted sword and a set of armor. There was a note lying on top of the gift that simply said 'don't tell her about this.'

I blinked a few times and yawned as I began to wake up from the dream. I struggled to remember what the dream had been about, then I remembered. It was about the first of six times that I had ever met my father. I pulled myself up and looked at the foot of my bed, lying there at the foot of my bed was the very same duffel that Homicida and Invicta had been given to me in.

"Morning~" Clara said happily, I lazily rolled over to look at my partner. She was sitting on her bed reading a large book, I then looked at the clock which bore the numbers 7:29.

"When's our first lesson?" I ask.

"Not for a while." She responded. I decided to explore the dorm a bit more thoroughly to find that Isaac was still fast asleep and Elith was missing.

"Where's Elith?" I yawn.

"I don't know." Clara responded. "Your uniform should be in that case." I opened the case she had indicated to find that it held six shirts and six pairs of undergarments and six skirts.

"Tell me this is a mistake." I groan.

* * *

Isaac, Grimm studies

* * *

I stifled a yawn as the professor droned on and on about stories that seemed to be more focused around him than Grimm. So far the only interesting thing that had occurred was Erik having to explain why he wasn't wearing school pants and Elith explaining why she was wearing school pants instead of a school skirt. My curiosity got the better of me and I decided to test a theory.

"Sir, what would be the most effective way to fight a King Taijitu?" I asked.

"A very good question young man, when I was.." The professor began to go into a new story that probably had something to do with my question but I wasn't hearing that part yet. The class dragged on for a while until finally the class period came to a close and we could all leave to our next class, History.

* * *

Clara, History

* * *

It's a good thing that I am very good at taking notes quickly given the speed at which the teacher was speaking. He was very, very hyperactive but eventually the period fell into a rhythm. I just kept taking my notes and regularly lean my head to avoid being hit by some projectiles being thrown by this boy Cardin. The tosses would've bothered me if it wasn't something I was accustomed to. To my surprise the professor had managed to give a full rundown of the formation of the hunters in a single period, I wonder if his jaw hurts? Then his time ran out and we had to go to lunch, as we entered the cafeteria a ginger girl seemed to materialize in front of Isaac and introduce herself.

"Hi, I'm Nora!" Nora said gleefully. "Me and Isaac met yesterday, want to sit with us?"

"Sure." Erik said after giving a quick glance to the rest of us, we followed Nora to a table that seated team JNPR and team RWBY. They all looked up at the company that Nora had arrived with and waved.

"Hi, I'm Ruby!" A surprisingly young girl said, she then gestured to her teammates. "This is Weiss, Blake and my sister Yang." Her teammates waved at them.

"This is Jaune, Pyrrha and Ren." Nora says as she sits down next to her friends. Me and Erik sit next to JNPR while Isaac and Elith take a seat next to RWBY. I struck up a conversation with Ruby about our weapons.

"My swords clip together to make a sniper rifle and my gauntlets have revolver style chambers for dust." I explained to her.

"What about the pick?" Ruby asked.

"That's mainly for climbing and swinging, it's more of a utility than a weapon." I reply.

* * *

Elith, Dueling

* * *

I was rather surprised to find out that there was a class period dedicated to fighting fellow students. Then again the Vytal tournament was the same thing on a larger scale so why not have a class about fighting hunters. I checked the roster to see when I was going to fight, I was next. The current fighters were Lie Ren and some kid wielding a thick blade that seemed to be a bit difficult for him to wield. Ren swiftly took the boy down through a series of rapid strikes as he was trying to swing the blade. Before my name was called I started to walk down the stairs to the arena, my opponent was a girl who had an obscene amount of knives strapped to her uniform. It honestly took some willpower to not laugh.

"Ok, next up is Elith against Azure." The teacher said as the two of us entered the arena. I drew Sanguinems and looked at my Azure and to my dismay she was unsheathing her knives, all of them. All of the blonde girls knives seemed to have unsheathed themselves and begun floating in three clouds of blades.

"Oh no." I managed to groan just before one cloud rushed me, I just managed to dodge it. My thought process was entirely dedicated to finding a solution, I quickly reached into a pouch on my belt and pulled out a crystal of wind dust. I knelt down into a well rehearsed position and crushed it in my hand, the familiar rush of energy greeted me but I managed to bend it to my will. Keeping focus, I released a gale of wind in a burst around me which caused the knives to temporarily fall from Azures control. I took the opportunity to rush her and kick her in the chest, this in addition to the wind caused her to lose balance and be flung off the stage.

"Elith wins with an impressive example of raw dust usage." The teacher announced, I walked back up the stairs and took a seat next to my teammates. I was doing my best to not pay attention to the number of stares that I was getting.

 **Authors notes**

 **Just a quick chapter that I wanted to get out while I think of a plot point to focus on. You can always help with a review or a request for me, I'm always happy to hear from my audience.**


	5. The white wolf

Chapter 5

The white wolf

Erik, Elith, Isaac, Elith, Forever fall

* * *

It was the beginning of team EICEs first weekend since the start of the semester so they had decided to go hunting in forever fall as practice. As they wandered around, they came upon an unusual scene, there was a pack of eight Beowolves but one of them was curled up in pain while the rest of them surrounded it, almost appearing to be guarding them.

"I don't think they normally do that." Isaac whispered.

"You should be a detective." Elith said, unfortunately it seemed that these whispers were enough to alert the protective beasts as they were now all looking in their direction.

"Good job guys." Erik said normally as he drew Homicida and turned Invicta into a kite shield. He ran up to the nearest one and ran it through with his sword drawing a crimson spray. Instead of drawing it out however, he kept his back arched as Elith jumped on him and leapt off to run her serrated kukris into a Grimm that would have pounced him. Clara spun the revolvers on her gauntlets and rushed two of the monsters, she struck one of them with her left hand which caused it to be impaled by rock shards and the other Grimm got a face full of fire. Isaac drew his Knixes and tapped a button on the hilts, a portion of the blades flipped down and revealed shotgun barrels. Isaac kicked one Beowolf prone and blasted a large portion of its head off, soaking the already red forest floor a deeper shade. He then grabbed a dust grenade that he had filled with ice and wind, he hurled this towards the last two standing ones. When it hit them two things happened, clusters of ice began to form but then a blast of wind shredded it apart. Ice shards went everywhere and impaled the two Grimm, it narrowly missed the curled up Grimm.

* * *

Clara

* * *

I cautiously walked over to the unmoving Beowolf, I stepped on a twig during my approach which caused the beast to growl. However, it did not make any movements so I continued to make my way towards it. I was curious as to what was wrong with it so I prepared my semblance and reached for the monsters head. It function like it normally did at first, I felt the slow drain of my aura and I began to feel what the beast was feeling. But then I suddenly lost that connection as the energy started being rapidly channeled elsewhere, I couldn't pull my hand away as my aura just kept being siphoned into the Beowolf. Elith noticed my pained look and ran over to help pull my hand off of its head, I did a quick check to my scroll which verified that a large portion of my aura was gone.

"What the hell." I groaned in pain.

"What happened?" Elith asked with a look of concern etched on her face.

"I tried my semblance on it and it started draining all of my aura." I said with my voice still a bit shaky, suddenly the Grimm started to make a really, really strange sound. We turned to look at it and saw that it was convulsing as what seemed to be a dark mass separating from its chest. After watching this strange event for what seemed like five minutes the blob had separated itself from the Beowolf and was beginning to dissipate. We would have kept looking but the wolf started to get up so our attention was shortly diverted to killing it. When we looked back at the separated piece we saw that a bit of white was beginning to poke out of it, and then it suddenly disappeared all at once fully exposing the strangest young Beowolf I had ever seen. The normally black fur was a stark white with occasional streaks and flecks of black. The protective boney mask was a steely gray and It's eyes were blue, it looked around at us for a few seconds and then it began to clumsily move over to me, much like a newborn deer trying to walk. As it became in close proximity to me I felt my aura emanating from it like any other Grimm that I had used my semblance on, except I wasn't seeing through its eyes or feeling the weight of its fur. I was connected to it but it was still autonomous, I experimentally extended my hand to draw back some of my aura but it would not return. However, the wolf came up and rubbed the side of its face on the hand as if it was a domesticated dog. My teammates kept looking between me and the unusual beast as if they were expecting one of us to explain what was happening.

"So, what are you going to name it?" Erik joked.

"Let's go back to beacon, someone might be able to explain this." Elith said seriously.

* * *

Elith, Grimm studies

* * *

We stopped in front of the entryway to professor Ports classroom and Clara knocked on the door, I almost laughed when I saw the wolf poke its head out from her satchel. Thankfully it had been docile enough to let us put it in there but it did not seem to be happy about its position. The door was opened shortly by the professor who looked around at us in confusion until his eyes fell upon the Faunus's satchel.

"Oh, what do we have here?" He asked and we explained the events of the day. "Well I am utterly perplexed by this conundrum, but I do have a theory I would like to test." He said at the end of our spiel, he extended his hand for the beast and Clara handed it to him. He pulled out a scroll and started to scan the Beowolf and a green bar exactly like the one that traces our aura levels showed up on the screen.

"As I suspected it has gained a self sustaining aura." Port proclaimed triumphantly, "We are looking at the first Grimm with a soul!" We all looked at each other in shock at this statement, the professor had basically said that Clara had shattered the laws of nature.

"I advise that you keep the Beowolf with you and keep it alive." He stated.

"I was joking earlier, but now it looks like it'll need a name." Erik said while grinning.

* * *

Isaac, EICE dorm

* * *

I flipped through the pages of the history book for a third time today and threw it across the room, it landed perfectly on the shelf.

"That was intentional!" I call. "It's official, Clara is the first person in history to have a pet Grimm." Clara had been sitting on her bed for what seemed like hours trying to think of a name for the wolf.

"Dakota!" She suddenly exclaimed, startling everyone in the room. "I'll call him Dakota."

"That's a good name." Erik replied,mother room went silent again as everyone started to prepare to go to sleep. Just before I closed my eyes I saw my scroll start buzzing, I check it to find that it was my father. I rejected the call and went back to trying to sleep.

"Who was that?" Eliths sleepy voice asked him.

"No one important." I sighed.

* * *

Erik, Isaac, Clara, Elith, Cafeteria

* * *

"You're joking right?" Yang asked. "Because that is _cat_ solutely ridiculous." A small period of silence occurred while Clara just looked at Yang in shock at the tremendously bad pun that she had just had to hear.

"I know it's far fetched but I have proof right here." Clara replied as she opened her satchel to let Dakota hop out of it. Thankfully nobody attacked, but most students who had not been part of the conversation prior to now we're caught off guard by the sudden appearance of an albino Beowolf.

"Oh my god, she wasn't joking." Pyrrha said, meanwhile Ren just looked at Dakota as if this was an everyday occurrence. Clara cut a portion of her steak off and fed it to the wolf, who seemed very happy with the attention it was getting. Ruby experimentally tried scratching his ear and found that this was not something Dakota had a problem with.

"At least we know that you're not _cat_ shit crazy." Yang said oh so casually.

"Stop, just, just stop." Clara groaned.

 **Author's notes**

 **From this point on I'm going to try to involve the main characters a little more. I've also done some work on the character backgrounds and developed their personas a bit more so expect improvements on that front. As always, feel free to leave a review or a request if you are enjoying this.**


	6. Vale

Chapter 6

Vale

Erik, Isaac, Clara, Elith, Library

* * *

It was early in the morning and team EICE had gone to the library with team RWBY to get relax. Clara grabbed a few books and sat down, Isaac started reading a book with design schematics for various tools and weapons. Erik joined Yang, Ruby and Weiss to play Remnant: The Game, and Elith decided to simply watch. After many tactical decisions and far too many tears from Ruby over her soulless automatons, Eriks Vacuo soldiers had overtaken Atlas. He then turned his attention to Weiss who still was not quite familiar with how the game works.

"Don't you dare Erik." She said in a tone that seemed like a blend of fear and anger.

"Do what?" He replied innocently as searched his hand for something useful.

"You know what." She groaned, unfortunately Erik didn't have a chance to attack as Yang successfully decimated his fleet with a Giant Nevermore.

"Goddammit Yang, you will regret this declaration of war." He proclaimed as he pulled out a card.

"Atlesian fleet!" Yang's walls were quickly taken to a critical state from a rush attack from Erik.

"Hey!" She snapped.

"Is there a problem blondie?" He replied with a smirk, that remark earned him a glare and some stifled laughter from Ruby and Clara. After a long drawn out campaign, Erik teamed up with Weiss to decisively take down the remainder of Yang's kingdom. Then with the biggest target off the board it did not take long for Erik to conquer Mistral. Yang was still frozen with the shock that she had been defeated as Ruby started putting away the board. Suddenly Yang snapped out of it.

"We should go somewhere." Yang declared suddenly.

"Where to?" Isaac said excitedly.

* * *

Elith, streets of Vale

* * *

I was sitting uncomfortably in a corner chair of a clothing store that Weiss and Ruby had dragged me into. It was clearly because they knew that I disliked dressing 'normally' I thought as I pulled my hoodie further down over my face.

"How about this?" Ruby called as she held up a black and red blouse and a matching skirt.

"No." I said plainly."Can we leave now?"

"I don't know about Ruby but I am not leaving till I've seen you in something other than that floppy sweater." Weiss said aggressively.

"Not gonna happen." I yawn, this led Ruby to throw the clothes at me and start trying to, tackle? Tickle? Incapacitate me? I wasn't really sure what her goal was so I just grabbed her hood and started holding Ruby a foot of the ground.

"It was worth a try." She groaned.

"How about now?" I said impatiently. "Can we go now?" Ruby held up twenty Lien.

"Wear these for five minutes and I'll give you this." She said in an hopefully tone. "Weiss won't leave if you don't wear something so just do it, please." I looked between her and the money and decided to take the easy route, I ran past them and out onto the street. I heard a groan of frustration behind me which I guessed was Weiss.

"Get back here!" Weiss shouted.

* * *

Clara, Erik

* * *

"Are you sure we should be here?" Clara asked Yang as we stood outside what appeared to either be a dance club or a bar, most likely both.

"Oh calm down, I know the owner." Yang replied happily and without another word she headed towards the club. It became clear very quickly that Yang's view of the phrase 'I know the owner' was a little bit different from most people since some of the guards at the doors got a look of fear in their eyes, rushed inside and closed the door. In response to this, Yang activated Ember Celica and blasted open the doors.

"Come on!" She said happily as she gestured them to follow her inside, which they did cautiously. The found a scene before them consisting of a few people dancing to the music, a bar and Yang chatting with a very unhappy man behind the bar.

"Hey Junior!" She was saying to the man. "One Strawberry Sunrise please, no ice." He started making the drink but did not seem happy about it. Clara took a seat next to Yang and waited for 'Junior' to finish making the drink before

"I would like a millionaire sour, ginger ale instead of whiskey." She requested once Yang had received and apparently 'forgot' to pay for her yellow and red drink.

"Alright." He said and got to work on the simple cocktail, Erik decided to not order.

"So Yang, care to explain why the guards keep staring at you?" Erik asked.

"Long story." Yang and Junior said simultaneously.

* * *

Isaac

* * *

Everyone had gone their own way as the visit had progressed until Me and Blake were walking along. We had been chatting as they walked along but now I was presented with awkward silence as we looked for something to do. For the third time that night my scroll started buzzing with the text Dad displayed on the screen and for the third time that night I rejected it. Unfortunately, when I looked up I saw that Blake had looked at it out of curiosity.

"Has he been the one calling you all day?" She asked.

"Yeah." I said in an annoyed tone. "Why aren't you answering?" She continued.

"Reasons that I would much rather not explain." I replied warily, for some reason I felt like she knew the answer anyways with the way her Amber eyes seemed to look right through me, but she chose not to pursue the subject. I sighed in relief, with the kind of reputation my dad has, it's best that no one knows who he is. Besides, that's the whole reason I went to Beacon instead of Shade in the first place.

 **Author's notes**

 **I decided to have a chapter of calm before I start throwing some plot points in. Feel free to leave a review if you're enjoying this. I've also started a poll on my page for you guys to affect the story with.**


	7. Challenges

Chapter 7

Challenges

Erik, Beacon

* * *

Me and my teammates had decided to spend lunch outside and were enjoying relaxing in the sun for a little while. Clara had finished eating and was curled up on a rock taking a quick nap while the others talked about the day so far. But Clara was rudely awakened by the impact of a thrown rock to her back, she quickly pulled herself up and turned to see that the source was team CRDL. They seemed to be finding her reaction absolutely hilarious.

"Freak!" Russel shouted at her, the rest of the team continued laughing at her.

"Ok, that's it." I muttered in a dangerous tone that seemed to surprise my friends, I scooped up a rock slightly smaller than my fist. With a small grin I activated my semblance and my breathing slowed as well as everything else, I took aim at Cardin and started to throw. My semblance gave me all the time in the world to adjust my form until the rock was flying on a perfect course towards Cardins nose. The scene started to speed up to the normal speed as the rock smacked into Cardin, this spawned a trickle of blood running from his nose and a scrape on his cheek. These wounds quickly sealed but the pain wasn't something his aura could have stopped.

"You're going to pay for that!" He shouted. "Fight me!"

"Sure, my team against yours." I say calmly. "We'll meet you in the sparring room after classes." I check my scroll to find that it was time for our next class.

* * *

Clara, Dueling class

* * *

"I can fight my own fights Erik." I complained, he only chuckled in response to this.

"It wasn't entirely about what he did to you, that was just the last straw." He explained. "I just can't stand bullies, especially ones that just can't learn a lesson." We probably would have continued our conversation but we were interrupted by our teacher calling out the next contestant

"Clara Lynn versus Yang Xiao Long." Glynda announced, I got out of my chair and started making my way down the stairs.

"For some extra challenge, how about you only use your gauntlets?" Yang whispered as she caught up to me. "Fists against fist."

"Sure." I reply with a grin as we get up onto the brawling space. I spin the revolvers on my gauntletake up a defensive stance.

"Start." The teacher calls, almost immediately I have to sidestep a blast from Ember Celica. From watching her fight before I knew that only more blasts were coming, so I start rushing at her and the slide under the barrages as well as her legs. I quickly get up and slam my fist into her chest as she turned to face me, a blast of wind sent Yang flying but she managed to regain footing before going over the edge. I set both of my gauntlets on stone in preparation, but in this short period of time Yang had managed to get up to me and before I could block I was blasted in the chest. I quickly sweeped my leg forward and knocked her over, in the time that this bought me I brought both of my fists down to the ground, releasing a blast of force and rock shards all around me. As Yang was being launched back she managed to grab my left arm and pull me with her, she then proceeded to use me to break her fall. I checked my aura and saw that I was in the yellow and a peek at Yang's showed the same. This told me that I only needed to get a few more hits in, with a quick shove I got Yang off of me and spun my gauntlets chambers. I dived under Yangs next volley, but unfortunately she seemed to have predicted this movement since some of them were aimed towards the ground. One blast struck me in the back but I instantly got revenge as I slammed my right fist into her side and released a mote of fire. I got up and swung my left fist at her, our fists struck each other and both gauntlets fired off simultaneously. My fist would have been blown back but the ice it released had temporarily froze our hands together. "Tie!" The teacher called out as I broke my hand out of the ice. I looked at the board to see that me and Yang's aura were at sixteen, definitely a tie. Yang fired off her gauntlet again to break off the ice and we started waking back up the stairs.

"That was fun." Yang said. "Yeah, We should do this again." I reply.

* * *

Erik, Isaac, Clara, Elith, Dueling classroom

* * *

The team had stayed behind in the classroom along with team CRDL and team RWBY, team RWBY had decided to stay and watch the fight.

"Standard tournament rules, I'm trusting Blake to be referee for the match." Erik said as the eight of them got up onto the arena. "Your out of the fight if your aura hits red." With that said and done they all prepared their weapons. Cardin instantly rushed at Erik, Russel sprinted towards Clara while Dove and Sky team up against Elith. Isaac grins at the realization that he was being ignored so he tapped his Knix hilts and the barrels opened up.

"Aww, no one wants to play with me?" He chuckled as he fired a shot at Cardin knocking him to the side leaving him exposed to a shield bash from Eriks buckler. Elith crossed her blades to catch sky's axe and redirect it to knock Doves sword away from her. Clara barely had any time to get a hit on Russel because she kept having to block the constant strikes from his daggers with her swords. Erik switched his sword to a whip and lashed at Russel, forcing him to briefly relent on his constant attacks against Clara. The Faunus took the opportunity to punch Russels gut, causing a gust of wind to blast him off the stage. Cardin took advantage of Eriks distraction and swung his heavy black mace into Erik's side, sending him into the center of the arena.

"A little help here?" Elith called out as she blocked yet another blow from Sky, Isaac quickly responded by throwing a grenade into the air, immediately after it hit the ground the arena was filled with a large cloud of steam.

Elith quickly made her escape from Dove and Sky with the cover that this granted and quickly activated her semblance. All four of the clones materialized around her attackers and drew their Sanguinems. Erik and Cardin were now facing off in the center of the stage, neither of them prepared to strike. The original Elith decided to pitch into that fight and poured herself handful of lightning dust, she threw it into air and maintained concentration on it. The haze of dust quickly expanded into a dark cloud and began to release a few bolts of lightning down on Cardin and putting him just above the red on his aura. Clara quickly assembled her rifle but was caught off guard by Sky and was knocked to the ground, this attack was joined by Dove who put in some final blows with his sword and she was put in the red.

"Two to one odds aren't very fair you know." Isaac said as he walked up to them. "Especially when you get the drop on them." And in one quick movement he threw his left Knix at Dove and fired at Sky. Dove was knocked to the ground after being struck by the heavy knife and managed to remain active. Sky managed to not fall, but was depleted into the red. Doves position was quickly taken advantage of by Elith's clones and the rapid slices quickly removed him from the fight. Elith quickly collapsed herself in on the clone closest to Cardin as Erik and Isaac walked up to him as well.

"A loser, an asshole, and a bigot." Isaac said as he kicked Cardin with each label, putting the bully in the red.

"And the winner is team EICE." Blake said with a small grin.

_?, Vale

"And he fits the description?" I asked the man who I had paid so much to find my son. "Yes sir, Tall with glasses and dark green eyes." He replied. "He matched your picture as well." That confirmed it, my son had fled from home to try and become a hero, great. I suppose I'll just have to bide my time. I doubt even my son would refuse a lucrative job like this, especially since it only demands a yes or a no. I noticed that the man had turned back into the alleyway that he had come from.

"Bad move, now you're wide open." I muttered to myself as I quietly followed him, drawing my silenced pistol and taking aim. "Now for my money back." I grinned as I popped off the shot.

 **Author's notes**

 **A more action filled chapter with a small peek at future plot there at the end, feel free to leave a review or a suggestion. The results from the poll are in, so check my account if you want to see the result.**


	8. Unhappy reunion

Chapter 8

Unhappy reunion

Isaac, cerulean cafe

* * *

I sat at the table along with Clara and Elith, Erik had some classwork for Dr. Oobleck that he hadn't finished yet. We were sitting down and talking about the weeks events and eating some pastries that we had bought. Despite the fact that I was smiling and enjoying myself I couldn't push down a nervous thought looping through my head. Today was when the Vacuo students came to town and I couldn't shake the idea that my dad might be among the visitors. He wasn't a student but I wouldn't put it past him to come here in search of me disguised as a student of Shade.

"You okay Isaac?" Erik said in a concerned tone. "You seem worried."

"Just wondering who will show up from Vacuo." I responded casually.

"What, did you leave an angry ex girlfriend there or something." Clara joked.

"Nope, something worse." I replied.

"What do you mean?" Elith inquired.

"Would you believe me if I told you that my dad was a ruthless mercenary who particularly enjoys jobs targeting Faunus?" I said in the most calm and nonchalant tone I could muster up. This was a trick that I had actually learned from my dad when he thought he could pull me into the family business, say the truth jokingly and people are likely to believe it to be false.

"If it weren't a similar situation for me leaving Mistral I would say that your joking." Erik said. "I left because of my mother, I'm not entirely sure what she did but when I got evidence as to what she did I knew I had to leave." There was a moment of silence until Clara decided to break it.

"I didn't have to worry about parents to come here, just an overprotective orphanage caretaker." Clara said.

"Your an orphan?" I said, quite surprised by the fact.

"Yeah, I never met my parents and the only thing I ever saw was a note." Clara replied bitterly. "All it said was my last name, Lynn, they were too lazy to even give the orphanage a name for me."

"Well, now my reason just sounds stupid compared to everyone else's." Elith groaned.

"What is it?" Erik said. "Don't mention things if you don't want to share."

"Mainly to prove a point." She sighed. "My dad had some really stereotypical views of what my future would be and how I should behave, and as you know, I'm not exactly the general view of 'ladylike'."

We spent the rest of the afternoon talking about why we had decided to go to Beacon instead of our own kingdoms schools. Me and Erik didn't really elaborate to much on the subject but the others didn't really mind it. We were all having a laugh at Elith's tale of the first time her father had tried to arrange her with some rich boy and other antics when I decided to start heading back to school.

"Bye!" Everyone said as I got up and left the cafe. I walked for a while until I was suddenly pulled into an alleyway by a rough grip and found myself with a very large knife to my throat.

"What is the worst thing you can do when you have a knife to your neck?" The rough voice of my captor inquired, I quickly recognized the voice and responded appropriately.

"Try to run forward, because then you have literally slit your own throat." I sighed. "What do you want dad." The knife remained at my throat but the grip relaxed a bit.

"If Grimm are attacking your target who do you kill first?" He asked.

"You stand by and wait for one of them to win, kill the victor and take credit on both." I reply, the grip once again loosened.

"Who is your target?" He asked

"A source of income." With this response he finally let go and I turned to face him, it was definitely my dad. I could tell by the electronic blue left eye, the combed blond hair that invariably found its way over his right shoulder and the thin scar stretching across his left cheek.

"At least you remember my lessons." He responded in a much kinder tone, despite his appearance his real voice was actually very smooth and in no way menacing, he just put up a fake voice for the sake of intimidation. "Why'd you run kid?"

"I don't know, maybe because I was sick of living with such a lovely person." I replied sarcastically.

"I didn't track you down for your sarcasm kid." He growled. "I got a job offer and I need some help from you."

"What in our past makes you think that I'll say yes?" I remind him.

"How does fifty thousand Lien for one kid sound?" He chuckled. "The target's name is Erik Fall, anonymous person wants him alive." Needless to say I was a bit shocked by his name being brought up alongside such a massive sum but I managed to keep a straight face.

"Can't say I've heard of him." I say calmly.

"Maybe you've seen him?" He insists. "A bit shorter than you, black hair, wields a red tinted sword?"

"Not in Vale, did the anonymous person give any reasons?" I ask as casually as possible.

"Not really, but they did refer to the job as recovery rather than just kidnapping." He said.

* * *

Erik, Ozpin's tower

* * *

"Are you absolutely sure that he said that?" I asked Isaac.

"For fiftieth time, yes." He sighed. "He described you and everything, who do you think would put that much on your head?" When Isaac had come into the dorm and told us all about how his dad had come asking for me, I instantly knew who was looking for me.

"My mother." I said seriously. "She already sent white fang searching for me, so it's likely her."

"Ok, now can you explain why we are going up to Ozpin?" Isaac asked.

"Because if it really is her I need to change my profile on the school network." I replied as I pulled up a picture of a blue haired guy with amber eyes and tan skin. "This is Ebony Carcer, a fake cover for my profile in case my mother or anyone else hacks the system."

"Smart." Isaac said as we walked out of the elevator.

"Excuse me Mr. Ozpin-" I started.

"I heard your predicament on the way up through the installed camera." Ozpin said calmly. "Out of interest, do you know your mother's name."

"She was too secretive for that, I only know the last name." I say, hiding my surprise at the fact that I hadn't noticed a camera in the elevator.

"Hand me the picture and I'll see that your request is completed." Ozpin said with a small grin.

* * *

Clara

* * *

I lie down on the grass overlooking the emerald forest and took in the view, I unclip my backpack and Dakota quickly pulls himself out and starts running around.

"It's a lot more pretty when you aren't trapped in it with all the Grimm isn't it?" Someone said behind me, I quickly turned my head to see Yang walking up beside me and looking out at the view.

"Yeah, what brings you here?" I ask.

"Same reason as you, I sometimes enjoy watching the view." Yang replied simply as she sat down next to me. It was rather silent for a little while until I decided that I should take the opportunity to get to know her a little bit better.

"So Yang, you're from Vale right?" I inquire.

"Yeah, my homes on a island off the coast." Yang said. "Where did you live in Vacuo?"

"A small orphanage in the northern part of the city." I say.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know." Yang said apologetically.

"It's ok, I checked multiple files and databases and there is no one dead in the city under the name Lynn." I say with a tinge of anger. "My parents probably just didn't want any responsibility." Once again silence descended on the conversation while Dakota finally got tired and curled up on my lap.

"I still can't believe that you have a pet Beowolf." Yang said.

"It is impressive isn't it." I said. "I think that he's starting to grow now, he's definitely heavier today." We continued engaging in small talk for a while until Yang proposed something.

"There's a small festival starting up in Vale this weekend, let's go to it." Yang said in a tone that made it sound like this was predetermined rather than a yes or no.

"Sure, sounds like fun." I say happily, after that we began making our way back to Beacon with Dakota trotting along with us.

 **Author's notes**

 **You haven't seen the last of Isaac's dad. A new poll is now open on my profile**


	9. Honesty

Chapter 9

Honesty

Isaac, Library

* * *

"Festival as in carnival right?" I ask quickly to verify.

"Yes Isaac, for the fifth time it is a carnival and there will be rides, games and concession stands." Ruby yawned out since her sister was getting too annoyed to respond.

"It just gets better every time I hear it." I reply happily, I had been overjoyed when Yang came to the table to invite us all out to the 'festival' because among the very small list of normal things I did as a kid, carnivals were among my favorite. Unfortunately my outburst seemed to have drawn unwanted attention to us since a tall blonde girl walked over to us, I didnt reckognize them but they seemed very familiar.

"Could you keep it down?" She asked in a polite but stern voice. "It is a Library." Even though he wasn't here I could've sworn that I heard Ren say thank you.

"Okay, I'm sorry." I say politely, after she walked away I returned my attention to my friends. "So, when should we go?" "Tonight." Nora said in a suspiciously calm tone. "All the way into next week!" She suddenly exploded.

"Sorry." I preemptively call out to the girl. "I'm in, who else?" I whisper.

* * *

Erik, Vale carnival

* * *

I hadn't really been to any carnivals back in Mistral since my mother saw more 'productive' things to do I my spare time, like learning to hack or pickpocket, normal kid stuff right? Needless to say, it was pretty awe inspiring when I walked into this giant cluster of lights, contraptions and people. Isaac, Nora, and Ruby vanish almost immediately as they dash off together in excitement while Yang and Clara head off to get on some of the rides. Me, Blake and Jaune decide to stick together for the time being.

"So, what first?" I ask.

"None of the games, I always lose." Jaune groaned.

"Probably because their rigged." Blake says calmly, as they were talking about the games I happened to see a stand full of prizes with a few bronze bottles stacked up.

"How much do you want to bet that I can knock those down?" I say as I point to them. "Knock yourself out." Jaune says.

"Jaune, I'm pretty sure it's the bottles I have to knock out." I joke as I walk over to the stand, I set down a dollar and the man gives me three rubber balls. I activate my semblance, the world slows to a crawl as I see the scene before me in perfect detail. I take a step to the side and the all as hard as I can at the back stand bottles, the ball slams into the middle bottle causing all of the upper bottles to fall.

"Ok, mediu-" the man started to say, but he stopped talking as he saw the ball had bounced off of the bottle stack in front of the back one and knocked it down as well. "Take something from the top kid." The man said with a frown.

"Could I have three things from the middle shelf?" I ask politely. "Sure." He groaned.

* * *

Clara

* * *

This had to be the most fun I have had in awhile, me and Yang had ridden some rides, won a few games, and now we were sitting at a table with a funnel cake to share.

"Thanks for mentioning this, I really needed a break like this." I say happily.

"No problem." Yang said, she quickly turned her head to look at some guys walking by. "Hey Clara, want to get some free cotton candy?"

"I'm not really comfortable with doing that." I say cautiously.

"Why, what's the matter?" Yang asked. "You don't actually do anything, you just joke flirt." I quickly mutter something in response that I'm pretty sure wasn't even English, but it was at least an attempt at avoiding the topic.

"Gesundheit" Yang said.

"Yang, can I tell you something and have you promise not to overreact." I ask, she nodded. "I have never really felt any attraction towards guys."

"Really?" She asked

"Nope, none at all, I just don't like guys." I murmured just loud enough to hear.

"So, what you're saying is-" Yang began.

* * *

Elith

* * *

Me, Ren, and Pyrrha had been walking around for a while, stopping here and the for some rides and games. I was toting around a giant plushie of an indeterminable species, Ren had won a small box of fireworks, and Pyrrha had won a rubber sword. Out of nowhere we bumped into Isaac, Nora and Ruby. "Hey guys!" I say cheerfully. "Follow us, it's urgent." Isaac said seriously, we followed him for a while until we came upon a building with a sign set up up saying 'Laser tag'. We immediately understood why we were here, we walked in and paid entry for a three versus three round. We all donned the chest pieces and picked up the rifles. "War!" Nora screamed.

* * *

Clara

* * *

The rest of the night was rather awkward for me since I couldn't really tell what was going on behind Yang's lilac eyes in response to my statement. She was acting like she always did but surely she was thinking about the statement to some degree, no one has treated me so normally after I admit this. But here Yang was, smiling and walking around with me, even after she had pressed for information and received a simple fact from me. I like girls, that simple piece of information was one that had gotten me some weird looks back at Vacuo and actually caused me to lose a friend who didn't want to be near me because she thought I would hit on her or something. But despite past evidence she was treating me the same as anyone else would.

"Hey Clara, let's ride the Ferris wheel before we go!" She called back to me.

"Sure." I responded, it just sounds wonderful to be stuck in a small metal box where she can ask me any question she wants to. We paid our dues and climbed in, we got into our own box and waited for it to rise. By the time we reached the top of the wheel they were still loading people on and we hadn't said a thing to each other.

"Why are you being so quiet?" Yang demanded. "Is it because of the little secret?"

"Yes, can you promise me something." I plead.

"Sure, anything." She replied. "Please, please don't tell anyone." I beg of her.

"What are you so concerned about?" The blonde asked.

"From experience I know that this has driven people away from me." I state.

"Well let me tell you something I know from experience." Yang said angrily, In a sudden movement she grabbed my shoulder and pulled me until our foreheads pressed together, for a moment all other things seemed to slow down for me. I could barely see anything except the pale violet screen before me, in my peripheral view I could see the lights in Vale to my right and the steel beams of the Ferris wheel to my left. My heart raced from the surprise and aggressiveness with which I had been pulled, and it only got faster as I looked into those unwavering eyes before me.

"From my experience, once you are completely open about something it becomes much easier for you and others to accept it." Yang stated in a very serious tone. "So get in a relationship or just be open about the fact." She said it so simply, as if it was the easiest thing in the world to be so open about this.

"Easy for you to say, people don't get insulted if you assume they're straight." I groan. "But if you assume someone's not straight then there is a much higher chance of them taking insult."

"Then just think through who you ask then." Yang said, she then loosed her grip and pulled back from me. The wheel began to move continuously now and we enjoyed the rest of the ride.

* * *

Clara, EICE dorm

* * *

Everyone else was asleep, I could tell this because Isaac had ceased to shift or make any noise, Eriks breathing had entered the familiar steady rhythm and Eliths light snoring had become audible. But I was laying wide awake on my bed, I kept thinking through what Yang had said to me and weighed its merit. The possible benefits never outweighed the problems and vice versa, it could drive away the friends that I had come to gain but it could also remove this fear from my shoulders of whether I can be honest with people. After examining the statement from every angle I eventually came to the conclusion that Yang was right, if I just bore the truth in the open people would just have to deal with it. With my decision finally reached I started to go to sleep. As I started to close my eyes and fall asleep I started vaguely considering who I might ask. After ten minutes of thinking I realized that only one person was was running through my mind, a certain blonde huntress.

"Uh-oh." I mutter as I realize what's starting up.

 **Author's notes**

 **I'm finally moving in on the results of the first poll, I'm not sure if this track will be pursued next chapter or later but it is coming. (Only fluff, expect no Lemons) The second poll is still open for votes if you want to get involved with the story. And please feel free to leave a review, it lets me know that you guys really care.**


	10. Survival

Chapter 10

Survival

Elith, The cliffs over the Emerald Forest

* * *

"Welcome to the extra credit opportunity of survival." Ozpin began. "You will all be sent with five members of different teams down into one of four separated sections of the forest, the point of this exercise is both to understand how to live off the land and to cooperate with people other than your team." He then paused to drink from his mug. "You will be left unaided for one week with only the supplies that you currently have on you, after which you will be retrieved." The last part drew a few groans from the crowd, especially from a certain blonde kid who had forgotten his backpack. I began to look through my pack to make sure that I had what I needed but I was immediately interrupted by professor Port calling my name from a list. It appeared that me, Jaune, Weiss, some Faunus named Velvet, and two people I had never seen before we're going to be launched into the same quadrant. I looked to see who my teammates were with, Clara was walking away with Yang, Pyrrha, Cardin, and two unfamiliar people. Erik was with Ruby, Ren, and three other people. Isaac was with Nora, Blake, Sky, and two strangers.

* * *

Erik, Quadrant three

* * *

"You know, sometimes I wonder if Ozpin just reaps joy from throwing kids off cliffs." I said to Ruby as we started positioning ourselves on the all too familiar plates. "I mean seriously, it isn't necessary yet he insists on doing it anyway."

"Erik, you're starting to sound like Jaune." Ruby said as she began getting into her stance.

"I'm just saying." I reply as I slide my finger down the line on my gauntlet causing it to burst into its greatshield form. "It's a bit weird." At that moment we were launched and I prepared my shield for impact. However, the resulting air resistance from the early release of my shield had slowed me down to the point where my impact only got my shield stuck partway into the tree.

"Well, isn't this wonderful." I mutter to myself, as I began to contemplate how to get myself down I heard a familiar voice. I looked up to see Ruby hurtling towards the tree, she had clearly seen my predicament and was heading in to help me. However, it appeared that her version of help was much different than mine, she 'solved' the problem by cutting the tree down as she passed. I braced myself for impact as the tree plummeted along with me. When I hit the ground a jolt of intense pain went through my body as I slammed into ground, my shield and my shield all at the same time.

"Thanks Red." I groan in pain as I start healing my scrapes and cuts. "Perfect execution."

"Oh come on, it worked." She said indignantly. "

Yes, but at what cost?" I ask.

* * *

Isaac, Quadrant four

* * *

As I was flying through the air I realized one very severe mistake I had made, I had forgotten to fill one of my grenades with wind.

"Well shit." I mutter. "Time to improvise." I adjusted my course a little bit so I would cross Nora.

"Hey Isaac!" She said happily.

"Do you have room to temporarily-" I start to say, but I was swiftly cut off as she pulled me onto the hammer.

"Say no more!" She shouted. "All aboard the Magnhild express!" We swiftly descended into a clear in until we pulled off a rough landing, more like I had a rough landing, Nora landed perfectly. I pulled myself up to my feet and to my dismay looked to find that the field that we had landed on appeared to have some unhappy company on it. A King Taijitu and three Ursi turned to face us and did not appear very accepting of our presence.

"Nora, I think we've already overstayed our welcome." I say simply as I take a grenade filled with lightning. "Nora, catch!" She turned to face my grenade and let it hit her, a blast of electricity quickly enveloped her and the area around her.

"Thank you!" She said cheerily as she absorbed the last of the lingering charge.

"You take the snake!" I shout as I turn my attention to the Ursi and grab an ice grenade. "I'll bear this burden." I hurl the grenade at the center beast, encasing it in a shell of ice. I draw my daggers, roll under the charge of the second Grimm and swing both of my daggers up into its belly. Some blood lips prayed across my face but thankfully did not cover my glasses, as I turn to face the third and final Ursa it slams into my side and knocks me to the ground. I quickly transform my daggers and then I stayed as still as I could. The predictable beast moved in to feast but only ate two blasts from my Knixes.

"Need any help Nora?" I call, my question was quickly answered as the white head of the King Taijitu fell dead before me.

* * *

Clara, Quadrant two

* * *

I honestly didn't know what I expected when I had heard that there was an extra credit survival activity. On the bright side I don't have to worry about a source of water, the center of this quadrant had a giant lake in the center. On the other hand I was going to be in a forest with the girl that I've developed a crush on, a guy who hates me, and a girl that I hadn't really talked to very much. This was definitely going to turn out to be an interesting week for me. I return my attention to the task at hand, landing, I throw out my pick and it latched onto a tree. I swung out and started to wait for my momentum to wear off. Dakota started shuffling around in my satchel as we started getting still, I dropped down and opened up the satchel and he leaped out and started trotting around and sniffing everything he could. I quickly pulled my hook from the tree and got ready to move out.

"Let's go Dakota, we need to find a safer spot." I say to him as I start making my way to the lake.

* * *

Elith, quadrant one

* * *

Just before I'm launched from my pedestal I crush a pale green crystal in my hand, causing a blast of wind quickly propels me off the platform before it even goes off. I channeled my aura so I could assume control over the dust, the wind started to twist until it was buffeting feet with enough force to give me the appearance of levitation. I propelled myself to the ground and started to drop the wind, but I looked up and saw Jaune plummeting towards the ground. I heave a small sigh and directed the wind to intercept him, his forward progress quickly diminished and he began slowly descending to the ground in front of me.

"Thank you." Jaune said sheepishly.

"Honestly, how did someone so inept get in here?" I say tiredly. "Where did you train where you didn't even learn a landing strategy?"

"Long story." He says defensively, expecting him to follow I started walking off.

"Let's go find a cave or some other kind of shelter." I say in a kinder tone.

"Could we possibly avoid caves?" Jaune asked, I started to ask why but he predicted the question. "Long story."

* * *

Erik, day one

* * *

I watched in a combination of confusion and fascination as Ruby dumped a full sized pair of binoculars out of a small tube.

"Don't ask, trick from my dad." She said, predicting my question.

"What else is in there?" I ask curiously.

"Stuff." She said simply, she climbed up a branch and started looking through the binoculars.

"Keep an eye out for a cave or another good campsite." I request, I start keeping a lookout in the opposite direction just to make sure nothing gets the jump on us. It was a miracle that the fallen tree hadn't drawn any attention to us from Grimm, this concerned me since this forest was supposed to be full of those beasts. I suddenly felt a weight slam into my back, I nearly fell over but Just barely managed to stay up.

"I found an outcropping~" Ruby said cheerfully. "Onward, to victory!"

"Do you seriously expect me to carry you all the way?" I groan.

"Nope." She replied honestly. "I half expected you to throw me off immediately."

"Fine, I'll carry you partway." I started running in the direction she had pointed, the shorter girl was much lighter in the long run than I had anticipated, this shouldn't be too hard. After running for what seemed like at least thirty minutes we came to the bottom of the hill before the outcropping.

"Ruby, there is no way that I'm carrying you up this hill." I say, she quickly hops off and starts running up the hill.

"Race you there!" She shouts back.

"This contests rigged!" I complain. "You aren't tired, and your semblance speeds you up."

"Touché." She said as she started slowing down to walk next to me, we kept walking until we reached the relatively flat area shaded by the rocky outcropping.

"Alright, let's set up camp." I say as I sit down for a break.

After about two hours we had finished setting up a basic camp, we both had our sleeping bags out, we had a small fire lit, and a small stock of twigs and dry grass.

"This is perfect, we're higher up so we can see anything coming, we're next to a lot of resources and we have near constant shade." I say calmly. "Tomorrow we need to make some defenses."

"Why, we haven't seen anything worth worrying about." Ruby complained.

"That is precisely what's worrying me." I say. "We're either in here with older and wiser Grimm, or we're in here with what killed them."

"I'm not going to sleep with that nightmare fuel, so I'll take first watch I guess." Ruby said in a slightly scared tone, the sun started to drop below the horizon and shadows started stretching across the valley.

"It's going to be a long night." Was the last thing I heard before I fully fell asleep. I had another vivid dream that night.

 **Authors notes**

 **This is leading somewhere, trust me.**


	11. Survival pt 2

Chapter 11

Survival part two

* * *

Erik, ?

* * *

"Where did you get those?" Mother asked sternly as she examined the contents of my duffel.

"I bought them." I say calmly, I had expected a situation like this so I had rehearsed my story over and over again so that I would not screw up if she had asked.

"With what money?" She demanded.

"Some idiots money from the wallet he had hooked on his belt instead of his pocket." I responded, at that time in my life this statement would have been believable. With only having my mother and her workers influence in my life, I was going down a rather dark path.

"Good job." She said, I could see a slight grin on the one exposed portion of her face. She always wore a mask or a hood to hide her profile around me, she often said that I would see her face when she could trust me. "You'll need some training with them."

"Thanks mother." I say politely, the scene swirled before me and I found myself sitting in a small diner about a month later. I was zoned out as I waited for my order to get to me, but I was suddenly snapped out of it by the sound of a glass being placed on the table. I looked up to see not my order, but instead a man had taken a seat next to me instead wearing familiar attire.

"Do I know you?" I ask cautiously.

"Jeez, you've asked me that twice kid." The man said. "How have those pieces worked for you?"

"Oh, it's you again." I say in a much quieter tone, avoiding looking at him in case someone watching was getting suspicious. "Who are you?"

"Your dad, I'm not gonna give you my name." He replied. "There's always the risk that you'll tell your mother." He took a quick drink from his glass.

"Why are you only coming now if you're my dad?" I demand.

"One, I wasn't aware you were real until four months ago." He stated. "Two, I didn't want to set up visitation on account of her being a literal psychopath." The scene began to change again, but I was swiftly woken up by a sharp pain on my cheek and Ruby trying to yell in a whisper.

* * *

Isaac, day one

* * *

"Nora." I say for the fifth time. "Where are we going?"

"To Blake." She responded.

"Do you even have the slightest idea of where she might be?" I ask.

"No idea." She said happily, we continued walking until we came across a river. I was about to fill my canteen before I notice four Ursa were lingering in the area, in a practiced movement I crouched down and drew my Knixes. My stealthy preparation was for not though since Nora decided to run out and fire a few grenades at the largest Ursa.

"Oh I just love improvising." I mutter as I dash out from cover to leap at the nearest monster, sinking my blades into the black fur of the beast and tinting it a dark Crimson. I quickly start using the knives as leverage to pull myself up the beast with a series of stabs, the Grimm roared in pain and drew attention from one of the other Ursa. The beast rushed me and its claw cut into my chest, the pain quickly faded but the force knocked me clean off its ally. I managed to recover in the air and kick off a tree right back onto the Ursa, in one swift movement I dive forward and plunge my Knix's full length just below the beast's skull, killing it instantly. Meanwhile Nora seemed to have finished off the other two.

"Watch out!" Nora shouted just as I felt the other Ursas teeth sink into my shoulder. It was clamped on rather tightly to where my aura wasn't able to heal the injury, it was about to bite again but I heard a sickening thud. It fell down on me and it maw loosened its death grip on me, I bend my neck to see Blake working her blade out of the skull.

"Ahoy, we've been looking for you." I say in a pained tone.

"Are you okay?" She asks quickly.

"It's healing, but I feel like it's going to leave a mark." I say as I trace the marred area on my shoulder. "So my knight in goth armor, where did you pop out of?"

"Spotted you guys when I was looking for a campsite." Blake responded.

"Did you find one?" I ask.

"Right here is good, a defensible clearing with a constant water source." She replied as she gestured around the clearing.

"Sounds like a plan." I say. "How are we going to defend, traps or walls?"

"Why not both!" Nora shouted, eager to join the conversation

So we put down our bedrolls, setup a fire pit, and started setting up defenses. It was too late to start working on makeshift walls, so we set some hidden stakes and whatnot. We set up shifts for the night, I would keep watch first, then Blake, then Nora, this way I conveniently had the most continuous sleep possible. My shift passed without incident other than a few odd sights and noises that procured here and there, at one point I swore that I saw a spotlight shining to the sky. After the routine of being paranoid had drawn on for three hours I woke up Blake and lied down on my roll and drifted off to sleep.

"Just avoid him."

"Why?"

"You really don't know about the Blythe kid?" These comments woke me up, I opened my eyes to find myself alone at a small table with a lunch in front of me. I turned my head to see someone steering their friend the long way around my table. This was the price I paid for my family name, suspicious looks and fearful treatment. All my life anyone who knew anything about the Blythe name knew to avoid the newest addition to the family, me. My 'family business' was the truth that everyone knew was true but no one could or would prove. So they instead choose to avoid conflict with us and kept a careful distance from my horrid family. I hated my family legacy I had been stuck with, most Blythes relished in this fear but the isolation only made me morose. I suddenly noticed something, the entire dining hall had gone silent, there was a girl sitting across from me at the table. Not only had someone actually dared to sit down, that girl clearly had a pair of grey wolf ears protruding from the sides of her head. This was especially odd, it was well known that my family had a extreme prejudice against Faunus, but she she had simply sat down and started eating.

"Hello, my names Hearth." She said in a tone that conveyed no fear or caution.

"Mines Isaac." I say cautiously, I quickly racked my mind for what you're supposed to say next. "Pleasure to meet you?" The uneasy reply seemed to amuse her a bit, she grinned and leaned forward a bit.

"I don't like people being isolated." Hearth said. "Whatever they may or may not have done." From then on we started chatting and getting to know each other, and the dining hall was silent the whole time. I would have loved to stay in this moment, but my eyes started to open.

* * *

Clara, day one

* * *

I looked into the clearing, the five Beowolves were still scavenging around. I glance down at Dakota, he's turning up some dirt out of boredom.

"Here's the plan, go up to that side of the clearing and distract them." I whisper to Dakota. "Then I'll take out the adult and turn the four young ones." The white Grimm then raced off to complete his task, I waited for a minute until I heard a bark from the other side. The beasts turned to face the noise as I clipped my rifle together, after struggling with the weight for a moment I fired a shot at the head Beowolf. The first shot went through the beast's shoulder spraying Crimson specks across the younger beasts, the second shot was luckier and pierced the skull. It fell limp, but the others now we're turning to me.

"Here doggie!" I taunt, the bloodthirsty red eyes glared back at me as they rushed me. I kicked the first one and grabbed it's face, the second one slammed into me and bit my side, but I managed to grab its neck. I quickly extended my aura into them, the hateful red eyes became an unchanging blue. I pushed them aside from me and braced myself for the next two, but they both managed to tackle me and bite down. I punch both of them off and take the left one by the throat, it starts to turn while the other one decided to flee for its life. This didn't really trouble me since I was already stretching my aura thin with three Beowolves, I started to develop a slight headache from the sensory input I was receiving. I sit down and close my eyes, extending the majority of my focus through my conduits. They quickly ran off in three different ways to search for a cave or some other shelter.

After scampering around for a few hours my eyes finally lit upon an opening to the earth, I lift my head up and sniff around. I don't pick up the scent of any Grimm so I start to head in, but I hear a blast and moments later I feel a sharp pain in my side. With great difficulty I manage to turn myself to the source, Yang was standing there with her gauntlets extending across her fists. She suddenly gasped as she seemed to see that the beast had blue eyes instead of red.

"Shit, sorry Clara!" Yang shouted as she rushed to the monster's side. "Is it going to pull through?" I shake its head, thankfully I could remember where I had gone. I feebly clawed the ground to scratch out 'wait here.' The last thing the wolf saw was Yang nodding, I opened my own eyes and started running off to the area. After traveling for fifteen minutes I finally found the cave opening and the blonde waiting on me.

"Hey Clara!" Yang said, she then knelt down to give Dakota a scratch behind the ears.

"Hey Yang." I say, looking at the cave and the surrounding area, I could tell that this was a decent spot. At this moment a loud noise interrupted us, the corpses of two Ursi fell into our clearing. Behind this pair were Pyrrha and a girl with pale skin and blue dyed hair hold two double bladed daggers.

"Hello!" Pyrrha called, the other girl simply waved at us.

"Who's your friend?" I ask.

"Her name's Misty, from team Crimson." Pyrrha said, Misty gave an affirming nod.

"Can she talk?" Yang asked, as she asked this Misty lifted up her chin and gestured at her throat, it was marred by a massive scar.

"Oh." I say. "We need to start setting up camp, it's getting dark." With that we all headed down into the cave, the descent was only a few feet before the cave leveled out into a small chamber. The only entrance and exit seemed to be the cave opening, other than that the cave seemed perfect for use. We all set up our bedrolls and Misty quickly built a fire with three logs and some fire dust, I elected to take first watch with Yang second, Pyrrha third and Misty last. I layed down at the cavern entrance and peered out into the darkness, at this moment my Beowolves arrived and I commanded them to start patrolling the area. With this respite I decided to think, what were the odds of my situation right now? I'm fine dealing with Pyrrha and Misty but I'm not sure how long I can keep my cool around Yang, especially if we'll be in constant contact for a week. After a long time of thinking through survival and my own personal problems someone tapped me on the shoulder.

"It's my turn." Yang said.

* * *

Elith, day one

* * *

"What do you think did this?" Jaune said worriedly.

"I don't know, what do you think would attack a Grimm with ice dust?" I asked him in an annoyed tone. "Also, what kind of creature do you think could actually use dust?" I knelt down next to the frozen Beowolf,; the ice seemed to have spread out across the monster from a single point, eliminating the possibility of raw use or ammunition. This also meant that the weapon used expelled dust from a point at the tip of the blade, in other words all evidence seemed to point to Weiss's rapier.

"Weiss must have passed through here." I say, Jaune looked at me curiously after this.

"How can you tell." He asked.

"I have some training in tracking and investigation." I say simply, my dad may have hated the thought of me doing 'unladylike' things, but my mom fully supported my want to be a huntress. With this support came professional training in many useful skills, among them being sleuthing. "Weiss!" I shout out into the forest, almost immediately after I called I saw a glint between the trees as Weiss kicked off a series of runes until she landed in front of us.

"Hello." She said, as dusted off her dress.

"Ok, I don't even want to know how you can make landings like that on stilts." I say, gesturing to her high heels. To save time I decided not to bring up the rationality of wearing dress to a survival situation, my attire was cargo pants and a trench coat for the sake of having as many pockets as possible.

"I don't want to know how a girl from Atlas is so underdressed." Weiss retorted.

"Nor do I wish to explain, can we move on to finding shelter?" I ask.

"Gladly." Ice queen responded, with that we started moving north towards the cliff face.

"I'm not saying you have bad weapons Jaune, I'm only saying it has limited and slightly pointless functions." I say to Jaune as we step into a clearing. Suddenly my attention is ripped from the conversation to the contents of the clearing, the partially intact ruins of a large square building. "Guys, check this out." We searched the building to find that it had three entrances and access to the barren roof, one of the walls was destroyed and at the moment portions of the roof did not seem structurally sound.

"It has flaws, but it is a good base to start with." Weiss said.

"First order of business should be reinforcing it." I state as I walk out to the edge of the forest.

"How are we going-" I interrupted Jaune's sentence by cleaving through the base of a tree with a crossed slice from Sanguinem. "Oh."

"Drag that over to the collapsed wall please." I ask politely as I cleave another tree, after about eight trees I decided that we had enough and started assisting in dragging. We started cutting off sections to stack against the wall and used the remaining portions to act as supports for the ceiling. This took around an hour and a half and was definitely sloppy in some places, but that was a worry for tomorrow I think as I lay down on my bedroll.

 **Author's notes**

 **I'm not actually going to write out seven chapters on this subject, I'll be having time skips to more important occurrences. The next chapter mint take a little while to come out since I'll be starting a new project alongside this, 'The bloody moon'.**


	12. Preparedness

**Chapter 12**

 _Preparedness_

* * *

Erik, day three

* * *

"Ok, tilt and drop!" I call as me and Ruby place the log in the dug up hole. "Ok, the walls almost done, two or three more logs and we'll be good." Around midday yesterday we had started digging holes at a slant along the hillside to make a wall, it wasn't entirely precise but it did provide some defense for us. We had been doing pretty well on terms of survival so far; our given rations were running low, but Red had managed to shoot down a few birds to cook later. We hefted a few more logs up the hill, placed them down, and slipped through the small crack we had made and laid down.

"Did we really have to use entire tree trunks?" Ruby groaned.

"Hey, we cut off a portion of them." I say, too tired to properly defend my viewpoint.

"We could've built it at the bottom." She continued.

"With this kind of defense we are less vulnerable to things like the flock of Nevermores yesterday." I retort as I started setting up a simple campfire and blow a pinch of fire dust into it. The logs start to burn brightly and warm up our shelter, I then grab a few sticks and put them through the birds and begin to roast them. After a while they begin to turn crisp and light brown and I pull them out and walk over to Ruby, who I found to be sleeping. I pinch her nose, four seconds later she quickly pulls herself up and gasps for air,

"Erik!" She said angrily. "What the hell?"

"Food." I say as I hand her two and start biting into my own, when we were halfway through eating I heard someone shouting. I looked through our wall and saw a boy at the base of our hill; he was unarmed, wielding only clenched fists, he was bald and wearing blue robes with yellow trim. What drew more of my attention was what was in front of him, a massive Beowolf standing fifteen feet high with long claws and spikes protruding all across their body.

"Hello!" The guy shouted. "A little help here!" I quickly went through our small entrance and slid down the hill, I draw Homicida and put Invicta in its buckler form.

"Incoming!" I shout to him, he rolled out of the way as I sped by with my shield raised for a rush. I slammed into the monstrosities chest causing it stagger a little bit, in a smooth transition I swung Homicida straight up leaving a long gash on its chest. A bit of blood sprayed on me; but not for long as the beast turned away from me and then swing back and slammed the full weight of its arm into me, sending me flying into a tree trunk.

"Crap!" I as I get up and the racking pain fades. "Ruby, get down here!" I hear the sounds of Ruby's scythe transforming and look up to see her seeming to almost be flying with a trail of rose petals trailing behind her. She streaked straight at the wolf seeped her scythe along its back, she cut a bit into its back, clipped a few of the spikes in half, and then the blade got hooked on the last few and Red was flung off. I pulled a electricity dust crystal from my pouch and clipped it to Homicidas hilt, the blade started to have arcs of electricity run along its length. Before I could even flip the switch the stranger beat me to the punch, literally. He ran up to the beast and swung his fist into the beast's chest; I expected nothing to happen, but instead of making a useless impact a blast of force sent the Beowolf stumbling backwards. Another blast of force sent it stumbling back to him, the hunter punched the the creature three more times with more blasts of force following. Still in good health the wolf swung out and smacked him away, it then turned its attention to Ruby. I took its momentary distraction as an opportunity and transformed Homicida, dashed up to the monster and swung the whip with all I could muster. The blade cut deep into the Grimms flesh and sent arcs of electricity arcing throughout its body. I expected the Beowolf to turn and attack me, but instead it fled into the forest to live another day.

"That's what I was talking aboutRed." I say tiredly. "Wiser Grimm actually know when to run, but it will be back."

"I never said you were wrong!" She complained.

"I didn't say that you did." I groan.

"Hello, the names Cadet." Cadet submits casually.

"Oh right, where my manners." I say. "My names Erik; she's Ruby, I'm from team EICE, she's from team RWBY."

"My team is CRMS." Cadet replies. "We're third year students."

"Cool, what was with those bursts of force?" I inquire. "We're you using dust?"

"No, my semblance enables me to manifest my aura as a physical force beyond a shield." He explains. "That's why I don't really need any weapons."

"That's awesome!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Would you like to come in?" I ask.

"It's better than being in the open." He replied.

* * *

Isaac, day three

* * *

I look out at our clearing for the third time that day and my grin just got wider than last time, I had put together almost every trap I knew how to build around it. I didn't try to hide any of the triggers in case of another student coming through, but any Grimm coming through could be impaled; sliced, dropped, crushed, or bludgeoned. Though one concern went through my mind, Nora and Blake weren't aware of my father or the reasons I had left Vacuo and my knowledge of trap making might procure some questions. Then again, it was either that or run the risk of being eaten in my sleep. Nora was at the riverbed for a drink ,and Blake was sitting on a tree branch reading a book that she kept covering the cover of every time I tried to identify it.

"I'm gonna go scavenge for some food!" I call to them. "If I'm not back in an hour, just wait longer." With this I began navigating my way through the triggers of my traps, once I reached the other side the search for animals began. I crouched down a bit and started making my way through the forest alert to any noise passing by, my eyes were only to the ground since my weapons didn't have the reach to do anything to birds. After a while I looked up towards the sun, the intense light hurt a little, but the position told me that it was a bit past midday. My attention is quickly diverted elsewhere as I hear a noise behind me, a large elk was wandering through the clearing that I was on the edge of. It looked calm, so it was likely there weren't any Grimm in the area. I made my way around the clearing as stealthily as possible until I was ten feet behind the deer, I raised my dagger overhead and prepared to jump out at it. But something beat me to the punch, a steel tipped arrow pierced the skull of of the animal and splattered a bit of blood on me. I quickly examined the angle at which the arrow hit the deer and looked up towards the trees on the other side of the clearing, a slim boy was perched up there holding a strange metal bow. He was wearing a set of leather armor that was adorned with various feathers, strapped on his back was a large quiver with many arrows protruding from it.

"I call pelt and ribs!" He called

"I had that!" I complain.

"I got it though." He replied.

"Who even are you?" I ask.

"The names Sage, who's asking?" Sage called down.

"My names Isaac, are you cooperating with anyone?" I inquire.

"Nope, are you suggesting something?" He says as he raises an eyebrow.

"Yeah, me and two others have set up camp next to a river." I answer.

"Alright, I'll drop by in a little while." He said casually. "Remember, ribs and pelt."

* * *

Clara, day three

* * *

We had thought that communication between us and Misty was going to be a bit complicated since she could understand English, but she couldn't speak. However, yesterday we had discovered she knew sign language. Pyrrha and Yang didn't know sign language, but thankfully I had learned it as an optional course in my education back in Vacuo. This cleared up some problems for the group, but we still had a slew of problems in the near future; steady food supplies, defenses, and my personal difficulty of being in a cave with Yang for four more days. I felt like I had to confide in someone or I might snap, or I might slip up around her. I look around; I had a current choice of confiding in Pyrrha or Misty, I didn't know Pyrrha too well and she might not be the best at secret keeping, and then there was Misty, I knew less about her but there was no way she could tell Yang. I head over to Misty and sit down next to her, she looked curiously at me with her hazel eyes and started to sign.

'How are you holding up?" She asked.

'I'm doing pretty well.' I reply. 'But I have to get something off my chest.'

'What is it?' She signed.

'Can you keep a secret from Yang?' She gave me this long, cold, unamused look that made me realize how that might have been offensive. 'Hey, you could write it in the dust or something.'

'I promise I won't then.' She replied.

'I' I hesitate for a second. 'I have a crush on Yang.'

'Oh, why are you telling me this?' She signed as she cocked her head sideways.

'Because you couldn't really communicate this effectively to Yang.' I reply.

'Why don't you just tell her?' She retorted, the look of confusion growing on her face.

'I don't want to screw up a good friendship.' I sign, that was only part of the reason, but she didn't need me pouring all my worries on her.

'Good luck on deciding what to do then.' Misty pulled herself up and walked off after leaving me to ponder on that remark.

"Ok, I'll handle the last one." Yang said as I propped up the second to last tree trunk of the third layer on our cave entrance. I nodded my head in thanks as I sit down on a nearby stump for a short respite, I wiped some of my sweat off with my sleeves and took a swig of water from my canteen. My attention then turned to Yang as she hauled the trunk, she was definitely better at this than me, probably because she's stronger than I am. After recuperating for a little while I climbed up on the cave entrance and started keeping an eye on the surrounding area, both through my eyes and the eyes of two Beowolves in my control. From my perch I saw Misty trying to communicate something to Pyrrha; she made a few gestures and symbols, but none of her attempts seemed to be getting the message across. I had the oddest suspicion as to what she was trying to explain, eventually Misty started to scratch out some words into the dust. At this moment I decided to come down to have a word, I listened in for a second before coming out.

"How do you know this?" Pyrrha asked Misty in a confused tone, Misty scratched a few more words down on the dirt.

"Why are you telling me?" She asked, Misty scratched a few more words down.

"Why would I have advice?" Pyrrha said.

"Hello!" I say as I walk out from cover, Misty instantly swept her foot across the words. "Don't bother, I have an idea of what you wrote."

"I don't really have advice on this situation, but perhaps you should just tell her how you feel?" Pyrrha said. "It's better than letting it build up inside you."

'I'm sorry.' Misty signed. 'It just seemed like you needed a little help.'

'I don't blame you.' I sign back. 'You were trying to help.'

* * *

Elith, day three

* * *

After another day's work we had worked the ruin into a proper fort. The gaps in the wall had been filled in by heavyset logs bound by rope. Through a combination of earth dust and log pillars we had solved the concern of the roof falling and made it usable for setting up watch. Now came the problem of food and water; I had managed to find a few berry bushes around the fort, but there wasn't enough for a week. Right now I estimated that if we ate what we needed to, then we could make it one more day with food. As for water we had been melting ice from Myrtenaster, I'm suddenly lifted from my thoughts as Jaune's voice cuts in suddenly .

"There they are." He whispered, pointing at the wild boar we had been tracking for an hour.

"Quit talking." I whisper as I begin creeping over to the animal. I prepared to leap out with Sanguinem, but a sudden flash of light blinded me as I heard a grotesque crunch.

"What the-" I heard Jaune shout; the light rapidly dimmed to reveal one of the oddest things I've seen in a long time. An ornate silver axe was now protruding from the dirt near the decapitated corpse of the boar. Next to the axe was an imposing figure wearing the most reflective armor I have ever seen. It was made to where the only exposed part of them was a few openings in the visor.

"Crap, I didn't know anyone was here!" They said, distorted and muffled by the visor. They struggled to get the helmet off for a bit until it finally fell to the ground. It was a girl with tan skin and rather messy auburn hair, her eyes were different colors, hazel and sky blue. She smiled awkwardly at us. "Sorry about that, the names Robin."

"Elith, and this is Jaune." I say briefly. "What the hell was that light, do you have a flash bang or something?"

"It's my semblance, I can manipulate light." Robin answered. "What are you two up to?"

"I was tracking this boar." I replied. "Speaking of which, we should probably get moving since the Grimm will smell the blood."

"Have you got a base near here?" She asked.

"Yeah, we've got a whole ruin set up as a fort." Jaune bragged.

"Lead the way." She said, picking up her axe and shield."

* * *

 **Author's notes**

 **I am extremely sorry for this hiatus, my summer was so hectic and I found little time to type. I couldn't get back around to writing for the life of me, I'll be doing my best to get back to writing on a regular schedule. If you're new to this story, just pretend this note doesn't exist. Please leave a review, it lets me know I'm not writing for myself.**


	13. Confession

Chapter 13

Confession

* * *

Erik, day six

* * *

"It's just a gut feeling." I explained.

"A gut feeling doesn't justify this Erik!" Ruby complained.

"I for one, trust in his instinct." Cadet submitted

"I swear that something was watching me when I was gathering today, if it followed me back.." I continued. "I don't want to fight a Grimm wise enough to track me to the base."

"He's right, a Grimm such as that would have survived many fights." Cadet added.

"So because of this, you want us to leave our base and run through the woods exposed?" Ruby whined, she seemed more confused than angry at this point.

"Do you remember the giant Beowolf from earlier, imagine what an Ursa or a Death Stalker of that scale of strength." I retort. "Tell me what our walls are going to do for us aside from trap us as something breaks in."

"I agree with his assessment, mobility will be our ally." Cade said quickly. "A wall can quickly become a cage, I've seen it happen." I decided not to ask about when he had seen such a thing.

"Ok, but if this turns out to have been nothing." Ruby paused, probably thinking of some consequence she could dish out. "You buy me lunch for a week!"

"That's a fair price to pay for caution's sake." I sigh. "Grab what you need, we're leaving in 20." I grab some of our rations and pack them in with my gear, Then I spent some time helping Ruby pack. After about thirteen minutes I heard something, it was a roar that almost sounded like wheezing. I recognized this as the roar of a Death Stalker, I saw a few birds flutter away from a spot in the forest a little ways from here.

"Ok everyone, time to move out!" I call out as I rush outside, the sun had begun to set while we prepared. "Better safe than sorry."

After quietly making our way through the woods for what must have been an hour, we decided to slow our pace a little. Suddenly someone tapped on my back, I turned to see Cadet.

"Are you sure you know where to go?" He whispered very quietly.

"Yes, Beacon is past that cliff face." I reply. "We'll be able to leave as soon as daybreak." I continue to progress through the darkness. I wish that Clara or Blake were here, night-vision would be very helpful for navigating the dark. I suddenly notice something in the distance, a dangling golden light in the darkness.

"Everyone duck." I whisper, we all got down on the ground. "Death Stalker." It appears that efforts had been for nothing as a red glow begins to form below the golden glow.

"We've been seen." Cadet says calmly. "Run or fight?"

"Run, definitely run." I sigh, I quickly secure my pack and set off running.

* * *

Isaac, day six

* * *

"Wow, that Grimm got you really good." Sage chuckled. "That's gonna leave a scar, to my knowledge you can only wait for a scar to heal." Sage had said earlier that he had some medical training, so I asked him to take a look at my Ursa bite.

"Really, I just have to deal with having an awesome scar on my shoulder?" I reply.

"I'm afraid so, be happy that it didn't sever any tendons or something." Sage continued. "I have a friend who… Never mind." I decided not to pursue the statement, I nervously slid my finger along the scar.

"It's a shame, but I'll live." I joke, Sage laughs a little. Sage had been a strange person to have in our camp; he was funny and helpful, but he had some strange mannerisms and knowledge that we don't think would be taught in a combat school. Actually, now that it's on my mind I'll ask.

"So where in the world did you pick up all these skills?" I ask.

"Oh, I lived outside the walls until I was sixteen." He replies. "I was taught to use bows and daggers as soon as I was 8."

"I've never been outside the cities before, what are the towns like?" I ask, my curiosity piqued.

"They're like cities except smaller and the whole population knows how to fight to some degree." The archer explained. "And I'm pretty sure that there are some laws and traditions that differ"

"I guess that makes sense, life must have different standards out there." I say Idly. "I'm from Vacuo myself, I learned to fight early on because of family tradition.

"Do you come from a family of hunters?" Sage asks.

"Not exactly, I wish though." I sigh. "I'd rather not talk about it." I pull myself up and walk off, I got to close to talking about my family there. I notice that Sage is staring curiously at me, way too close.

* * *

Clara, day six

* * *

I was sitting on watch again; not that I really needed to, the Beowolves handled watch with me awake or without, but because I was thinking. I was handling a debate within my head that had been pestering me for an answer all week, should I confess my feelings to Yang. Both sides made good points, which didn't help my decision at all. Part of me feared that if I confessed, it would ruin the friendship I had with Yang and things would become awkward. The other part of me believed that things would be worse if I bottled the feelings up, that they would come bursting out in worse ways than a controlled confession. I groaned; I wish I had more people to talk to about this, Misty and Pyrrha were providing nothing in the ways of meaningful help. All they said was that I should tell her how I feel, as if I hadn't thought to do that already. I laid down and stared at the sky, Dakota took this as an invitation to curl up on my chest.

"What do you think I should do?" I ask him as I scratch behind his ear, he just yawned and looked at me with his blue eyes. "What did I expect, you have a soul but you don't understand the crap we go through." I tried to make the subject leave my mind, but Yang just kept making the return trip to my thoughts.

"Fine, you know what fine." I growl to the heavens, I didn't care at this point. If confessing would ease any of this then I gladly accept all potential consequences. I pick Dakota up and send him to go wake up Yang, while I wait for him to return I think of what to say. Unfortunately I receive no strokes of creative brilliance before I hear.

"Oh hey Clara, why didn't you wake me up." Yang said, kind of confused.

"I- I, um, I couldn't sleep." I say; smooth Clara, real smooth. "Sit down, we can talk. As Yang sat down next to me, the debates in my head returned with full force. Clearly I displayed this conflict with my expression, Yang was looking at me with a concerned look.

"Are you alright Clara?" Yang asked. "You look likes something's troubling you."

"It's complicated, and slightly frustrating." I say. "I- I'd rather not talk about it."

"Now I'm just more curious, tell me something about it." She says with a sharper edge of concern.

"I have no idea how to phrase this." I sigh. "Do you remember our talk at the carnival?"

"Do you really think I could forget such an interesting conversation?" She says, Ican hardly tell if she's being sarcastic. "Have you taken my advice?"

"Well, I recently noticed that I've developed certain feelings for someone." I said slowly, thinking about my every word carefully. "And I am completely lost as to whether or not I should tell them, and I'm afraid to tell them."

"Why would you be afraid to tell them?" She asked.

"I don't want to make a good friendship weird." I say, the more questions she burns through will lead to the most obvious one.

"Who is it?" She asks. "Elith, Weiss, Velvet, who?" Now a more light hearted jesting tone had breached her voice.

"Wrong on all accounts I'm afraid." I say, I take a short breath and prepare for the seemingly simple statement. "I- um, I may have developed feelings for- for you." Good job; stammering, really good, you just exude confidence right now. It became very quiet, the confession hung in the air without a response, we just kept looking at each other and I kept getting more and more nervous about how she was going to respond. After what seemed like an eternity, a interesting grin appeared on Yang's face. She started laughing a little bit, and then she pointed at my face.

"Your cheeks are so red right now!" She said, stifling her laughter. "It's adorable!"

"Wow, you really just hurt my pride." I jest, faking a hurt look. "Don't you realize that's my weak spot?"

"I was just breaking the silence, I thought you were going to say something more." She said apologetically. "So, we're you joking or do you actually have a crush on me?"

"Not joking, I noticed the feelings shortly after the carnival." I say, releasing the weight of the withheld information. "It's been eating me up all week and I don't care anymore, just respond to the matter so I can be at ease." That sounded a lot more melancholy than I wanted it to.

"Well I can't just turn down the chance to go on a date with you, can I?" Yang said. "You're catsolutely adorable!"

"I'm already regretting my decision." I joke, cringing at the pun.

"Don't be catty." She laughs, what have I done to deserve this.

* * *

Elith, day six

* * *

"Hey Elith." Robin said.

"Yeah?" I ask, curious as to what she wanted to talk about.

"I'm getting bored." Robin said simply. "I want to talk."

"Boredom tends to occur when you have to watch nothing happen in a quiet forest for a few hours." I comment. "Anything in particular you want to talk about?" Robin looked like she was thinking, I looked back out at the forest. Once Robin had joined us, we changed the one person watches to two person watches.

"How about we get to know each other." Robin said. "I'm from Mistral, you're from Atlas right?"

"What gave it away?" I joke, thinking of me and Weiss's joking comments about our origin. "But yeah, I'm from a high class family of idiots up there." Robin frowns a bit at my comment about my family.

"You really don't like your family?" She said, confusion cutting into her chipper tone.

"No, I pretty much only despise my Dad." I reply. "He tried to stop me from doing the 'unladylike' practice of being a hunter, my Mom and brother were supportive though."

"What's that even supposed to mean?" Robin laughed. "Is he seriously so close minded as to believe women shouldn't fight?"

"Maybe, or perhaps he's just overprotective of me." I say, the concept of the second option only now popping into my head. "Either way, I don't like the way that he chose to blatantly disregard what I wanted to be." It was quiet for a little while, I was concerned that maybe I had vented a bit too much.

"You know, I faced a similar problem because of my semblance." Robin said, her happy self returning to her words. "You know how pretty much every hunter you see has some kind of combat useful semblance?"

"Yeah." I respond.

"When I discovered my semblance on accident, people laughed, I could produce a dim glow equal to a candle." Robin sighed. "They said that I should give up since my semblance couldn't help me, but I kept training my gift and I built my equipment around the concept of light." Robin burst out laughing.

"So that's why your armor is platinum?" I ask. "Just to reflect light?"

"Yeah, I can focus light into heated beams and turn myself into a blinding beacon of light." She said, chuckling to herself. "All to prove a damn point."

The conversation would have continued, but I noticed two things at once. Angry footsteps behind us and that it was about time to end our watch. I turn around to see Weiss storming up to us.

"Hey Weiss, we were just about to wake you and Jaune." I say, struggling not to laugh. "Why are you up?" Robin on the other hand, looked embarrassed that her laughter had manage to wake Weiss up.

 **Author's notes**

 **Well, I kind of wrote myself into a corner with this whole survival ordeal didn't I. It took me long enough, but now the voted ship is accomplished and the voted team has been introduced. Now if you don't mind, write a helpful review while I go sit in a corner and deal with writer's block.**


	14. Missing

Chapter 14

Missing

* * *

Erik, ?

* * *

I looked at Mistral's night sky, the roof wasn't the most comfortable place to be for this, but it was all I had at the moment. Mother and her associates were having a discussion inside and I wasn't allowed in, so I sat on the roof and fiddled with the sword I had named Homicida. I had seen the man who claimed to be my father three times since the diner meeting, something he had said last time I saw him had stuck with me.

"I want you to take a look at who's around kid, you're not with nice people." He had said. "Your mother and her friends would tell you that they're in the right, but if you understood the goals they hold, then you would want out of here." His rough voice kept repeating that phrase over and over for a week now, the more I thought about it the more he was right. My mother wasn't very kind or caring, and her allies treated me like a Faunus when they spoke to me. That was another thing that his statement made me think about; I was taught that Faunus were like tools, like animals. I didn't see why though, they seemed to behave just the same as anyone else, he only difference was a minor physical attribute. Before he had left; my father gave me another gift, a small envelope with a form in it, it was a fully filled out form for requesting entry into beacon. He told me to sign it and that he would tell me when I could leave this place, I did and he left. I stared at the sky and thought, was I being impulsive? Did I really want to leave, or was I just taking what this potentially deranged man had been telling me for perfect truth. I started to get a rhythmic headache, the heavy throbs started to turn into loud beeps as I woke up.

* * *

Erik, Infirmary

* * *

I blinked a few times and looked around me, I was in the Beacon infirmary. I started to remember what had happened, I had tried to cover everyone's escape from the forest and the Death Stalker had gotten hit my head as I turned to flee. It was quiet for a bit until Ruby suddenly entered the room, she noticed that I was awake and happily grinned.

"He's ok guys!" She shouted, Sage and the rest of my team followed her in.

"Did you seriously turn your back on a Grimm?" Elith scolded jokingly. "That's the single dumbest thing you've done all year."

"Excuse me, who ever told you that I made good decisions?" I challenge.

"The man makes a good point Elith." Isaac said with a grin.

"What did I miss?" I ask.

"The world's been taken over by sentient robots from Atlas, we're at one of the few pockets of resistance left on Remnant." Isaac said with a dead serious face.

"See, I can't tell whether or not you're joking, because that could definitely happen." I respond.

"You only missed one major announcement, Clara's dating someone." Elith said nonchalantly; this piqued my interest, but Clara looked very nervous about the information being shared.

"Who?" I ask.

"Yang, apparently Clara likes girls." Elith said. "Not that I'm judging, just don't hit on me." This information didn't bother me either; I couldn't care less about someone's romantic preference, it's not like it affects me. We had some small talk for a while and discussed our experiences in the forest, most interesting among them being that we had each befriended a member of team CRMS down there. After a while, I pulled myself up and we walked out.

* * *

Isaac, Lunchroom

* * *

'13 missed calls from dad' My scroll read out, I sigh and put it into my pocket. This situation was going to come to a head sooner or later; either my dad would visit and spot Erik, or whoever is looking for him will get tired of waiting. Until it became an public ordeal, me and Erik had promised that we would not discuss the matter; his bounty, or my heritage with anyone but each other.

"You aren't going to call him back?" I hear Pyrrha say, shit, I had forgotten that there was still someone next to me.

"I'd rather not." I reply quickly, hoping that she would drop he matter.

"Why not?" She asked. "He clearly wants to talk to you."

"It's what he wants to talk about is the problem, and I think it best not to explain." I say calmly, she doesn't look very satisfied by my reply, but she chooses to drop it.

"Ok, you know we can help you if something's wrong." The redhead ended, concern lingering in her tone. I sigh and return my attention to the table in to hear the end of Ruby's retelling of something odd that happened.

"And then she just ran off!" Everyone seemed surprised at what Ruby said, I found myself left in the dark on it.

"So does that mean that she's a Faunus?" Clara asked.

"No, of course not." Elith said sarcastically. "Haven't you heard of all of the human members of the white fang Clara?"

"Come on, this is serious guys." Yang said angrily. "Blakes missing and we need to find her."

"Do we really?" Weiss said.

"Shut up Ice Queen." Clara said, resentment building up in her voice. Well, that interaction caught me up to speed.

"We can help you search if you'd like." I say, wanting to help with the situation.

"Sure, more people means more area covered." Ruby said happily. Despite the concern that this circumstance created, I was happy that it appeared to have made Pyrrha forget about our conversation.

"We'll help then, see you down in Vale."

* * *

Clara, Vale

* * *

"Blake!" Isaac calls out for the hundredth time, but nothing changes from the last time.

"I'm starting to think that she might not want to be found right now." Elith said sarcastically.

"I suppose you're right, perhaps we should just give up on our friend and just go home without worrying at all about her well being." Isaac retorted.

"Can we just calm down." I begged everyone. "She might not respond to us, but our eyes still work."

"She's right." Erik said simply. "How about we split up, we'll cover more ground that way." We quickly split and headed our separate ways to find Blake. I went through the market district, eventually I got tired and decided to take a break. I stopped at a tea shop to have a quick drink, I noticed a familiar face once I was inside.

"Hey, Misty!" I shout, she looked up at me and waved. I walked up to her took a seat.

"How are you doing?" She signed.

"I'm doing well, what are you doing here?" I asked.

"I just felt like heading to town, no reason in particular." She replied. "What about you?"

"I'm looking for a friend, her name's Blake." I say, Misty looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Is she that girl who always has the same black bow everyday?" She signs. "I saw her here earlier, she was talking to this blonde Faunus guy."

"Did you see where they went?" I asked, latching onto the new lead.

"I wasn't really paying attention, it didn't seem that important." Misty signed with an apologetic shrug.

"It's not a problem Misty; I completely understand." I say, we chatted for a bit and I ordered some tea.

"I just realized something." Misty signed.

"What?" I ask.

"You look like you're talking to yourself and I'm just here." She answered, she grinned at the peculiar thought.

"You're right, I probably do look crazy." I say, realizing how weird I must seem to other people. Misty suddenly pointed behind me to show that Yang and Weiss had entered the building.

"Hey Clara." Weiss said, the edge on her tone clearly indicating her hostility. "Who's this?"

"Weiss, that's Misty." Yang cut in. "She was with me and Clara down in the forest." Misty held out her hand and Weiss shook it.

"So Clara, what have you found out?" Yang asked.

"Misty saw Blake a while ago, talking to some blonde Faunus." I say.

"Could he have looked like this?" Weiss asked as she pulled a crumpled piece of paper out from her pocket. It was a shoddy drawing of a guy with spiky hair; teeth taking up his face, and a monkey tail.

"Tell her that she got the monkey tail right, but she probably shouldn't try helping the police with this quality of drawing." The mute signed, I keeled over laughing before translating the information.

"She says that at least you got the monkey tail right." I explain.

"I knew it, she's working that filthy vagabond Faunus." Weiss growled, I frowned.

"You know Weiss, you have bad memory for company." I say, waving my tail a little bit for emphasis. "Maybe you could be a touch less racist about Faunus."

"Faunus have done nothing but hurt my family and our business all my life." Weiss said angrily.

"What, did some underpaid workers trip and drop some dust?" I snap back.

"No; we've been stolen from, attacked, and killed by Faunus." Weiss said angrily, Misty saw that this conversation no longer involved her and awkwardly walked out of the building.

"Open up your mind a little bit ice queen." I growled. "White Fang and Faunus are not the same thing, it's ignorance like this that angers Faunus to do things like join the White Fang." Weiss raised her finger as if she was going to retort, but then she put it down. She sat down on a chair and looked up at me.

"You're right." She said sadly. "As much as I hate to say it, I guess I've been wrong about some things." I was honestly surprised, I had expected Weiss to adamantly defend her points.

"When you find Blake, try to keep an open mind before you yell at her." I say calmly.

"I will." She said, Yang looked very happy that the situation had been diffused.

"Ok, can we get something to drink?" The blonde said, clearly wanting to get the situation past us. We sat back down and Yang put her arm over my shoulder. "So what's good here?"

* * *

Elith, Vale

* * *

My eyes swept across the streets for any sign of Blake; black fabric, her bow, the flicker of her eyes in the dark, a bullet shell from her gun, anything. Nothing, not a trace. Dammit, I've been looking for three hours and the only interesting thing that's happened is someone mistaking me for one of their friends.

"Bla~aake!" I yawn experimentally, still nothing. Night was starting to fall and I was only getting more tired, but I was snapped out of it by the deep rumble of an explosion. I looked to see the dissipating cloud of smoke over the docks.

"Blake or no Blake, that seems worth investigating." I say to myself, I began dashing to the docks. After 8 minutes of running I was on the edge of the docks, I heard fighting ahead and saw a few people with the symbol of the white fang emblazoned on their backs. I also saw a few bullheads taking off, some of the lifting crates of dust with the Schnee logo on them. I decided to go for one of the bullheads, I reached into my pouch and retrieved a brown shard of dust. I crushed in my hand and released the dust slowly, I focused on the dust and many slender spears of rock. The dust slowly coalesced into 8 long rocky shards, I grabbed hold of one of them and willed them to fire off. I was instantly hurled at the bullhead and the spears stuck, one of them hit the left engine while the rest of them impaled themselves uselessly against the hull. I heard someone saying something inside the ship.

"I swear if one of those kids can fly!" A man said. "Go check that out." The VTOL was beginning to tilt left as the injury to that engine was starting to catch up to it. A sliding door was opened, revealing a white fang goon and a ginger man with a cane.

"What's the deal punk?" The man asked politely. "The rock concert isn't up here." I assumed he was commenting on my attire, I guess I did look like the stereotypical 'rock concert' girl right now with the black sweater and ripped jeans.

"I don't suppose you work with he Schnee dust company." I say. "Otherwise I would feel very stupid right now."

"You know, as much as this conversation is riveting to me; I really have places to be." He said, before it could react he broke my spear with a swing of his cane and I was falling. I grabbed a wind crystal to slow my fall and I slowly drifted down to the dock, controlled gusts of air keeping me afloat. When I landed, I was greeted by team RWBY and some blonde monkey Faunus. The other White Fang had vacated the area and the docks were safe again.

"What the hell was all that?" I say. "Why was there a human with them; what's Blake doing here, and lastly who's this guy."

"I don't know; Blake wanted to confirm a suspicion, and this is Sun." Ruby said, imitating the speed of my rapid fire questions.

"You know what, explain this to me when I'm not tired." I say. "Good to see you Blake, see you guys tomorrow." I made my way back to Beacon and got into the dorm room, Clara and Erik were already there and fast asleep. I only briefly wondered about Isaac's absence before collapsing on my bed.

 **Authors notes**

 **Sorry that took so long, I had some writer's block and a shitstorm of other things consuming my time. I'll try to get another chapter out by next Friday. As always, please leave a helpful review; tell me what I'm doing right or wrong, don't leave useless hate.**


	15. Killer

Chapter 15

Killer

Erik, ?

* * *

I fastened the straps of my armor and emerald cloak, I counted out the Liens that I had accumulated one more time and made sure my equipment was ready. Today was the day to run, two weeks ago I had found a letter of acceptance to Beacon with an envelope containing an alias for me and a note that read 'just in case.' on my bed. I had spent these past weeks secretly setting up a convoluted series of transport to get there without being traced, I packed lightly and prepared to make my way to where a Bullhead was to take me to a town outside Mistral. Three Bullhead trips later and I would get on a 60 mile train ride to Vale and fly safely up to Beacon, the first step was to get out of the house unnoticed. Simple enough, I pulled down my window and leaped out. I landed, albeit roughly, on the neighboring rooftop. Not wanting to wait to see if someone heard it, I ran and leaped to the next onto the next roof. I zigzagged across gradually lowering rooftops until it was low enough to jump safely to the ground. I dashed from there to where the Bullhead was supposed to arrive, to my dismay I was early. I was sure that Mother had eyes across our section town, someone is surely going to see me. I heard someone behind me, I reached into the folds of my cloak and rested my hands on the weapon I had named Homicida.

"Nice preparation, but someone's going to more scared by a weapon itself rather than the potential of someone having one." My Father aid from behind. "I don't know what you did to get here, but you're Mom does and is headed this way."

"How did you find my plans out?" I asked.

"No time to explain, your rides here." The Bullhead landed and I showed my proof of rental and we got moving. I got into the rhythm of the ride; the hum of the engine, the rush of the wind,,, and the heavy weight on my chest.

Erik, EICE dorm room

I suddenly woke up and found that Dakota was curled up on my chest, I scratched his ear and gently moved him to my left. He seemed to have grown since we first got him, he was nearly twice as large now. He was almost as large as an average Great Dane, he might be capable of combat in time. Moving my thoughts along, I checked my alarm clock '7:25 AM'. I groaned, school would start soon and I had barely gotten any sleep after the excitement of the Blake hunt. I put my clothes on; slipping on the thin armor that I kept on in case of aura depletion, and I clipped my belt with it pouches of dust and other supplies, I clipped on my swords sheath and tossed my beloved cloak over my shoulders. Ready for the day, I looked over to my teammates. Clara wasn't in her bed and neither was Isaac, Elith however was face down on her bed with her sweater sprawled over her.

"Elith, wake up; we have classes soon." Erik said.

"I'm not sleeping, I'm just wishing I was." Elith's muffed voice muttered. "Give me a minute." I freshened up in the bathroom while Elith changed and I headed out the door. The rest of the day progressed as normal, except that Isaac was nowhere to be found. I regularly checked possible places he could be, but he never turned up in the dorm or the library. If it was anyone else, this behavior would be minorly concerning; but with me and Isaacs circumstances, this could spell out major trouble. Once school was out, I got a text from Isaac.

 _'Meet me in Forever Fall, I found something interesting.' - Isaac Blythe_

 _'What is it?'- Erik Fall_

 _'It's hard to describe.'- Isaac Blythe_

 _'Does it have to do with our certain circumstances?'- Erik Fall_

 _'Yes.' - Isaac Blythe_

There were coordinates attached to his message, I decided to go there in an hour.

* * *

Isaac, Forever Fall

* * *

"You seem really set on getting this guy." I said to my dad, testing the strength of my constraints. "Could you not try to kill my friends for once, that would be really nice."

"I'm not going to kill him, and last time it was different." My Dad said angrily. "Last time it was more than a friend, and the object of your affection was filth; you needed a lesson kid." I clenched my fist at that reference to Hearth, I struggled against my constraints some more. "That was a year ago, get over yourself and think of the future." That would have sounded nice and motivational if you didn't know the real circumstances of what he was talking about.

"You realize that Erik's going to see me tied up before he walks into this area right?" I said, another lesson from dad; if you can talk to an enemy before a fight, place a seed of doubt in their thoughts.

"That's what I'm hoping for." My dad said as he loaded a dart in a pistol. "Suprise is…" he waited for me to finish the sentence.

"All about the targets focus." I said begrudgingly.

* * *

Erik

* * *

I walked through the Forever Fall in search of the given coordinates, as I was walking I considered possible explanations for what had been found. Maybe Isaac had found his dad and killed him, or maybe he talked to his dad and gotten information. And though I hoped it would not be the case, experience told me to be on guard for the chance of this being a trick. Which would either mean that Isaac was a traitor and a sellout, or that he was in danger. Either possibility meant nothing good. Eventually I got to a clearing with a tree towards the center, Isaac stood there tied to the tree. Trick it is then, I swiftly closed my eyes and listened. I heard a small click, I reflexively activated my semblance and opened my eyes. I saw the dart coming towards me quickly despite the slowed time, I deftly sidestepped and got out of its way just in time. I traced he square on my armguard, turning Invicta into a kite shield. I kept my eyes open for the next dart, but instead a man jumped down from a tree. He looked similar to Isaac, with the chiseled jaw and an oddly kind looking face. I could only assume this to be his dad.

"Good dodge, and I was hoping this could be easy." The man said, he made no advances but I stayed at the ready. I examined him, and I expected he was doing the same. He was wearing a trench coat, he had long combed blond hair and his eye was a unusually bright shade of blue and I noted that he had no visible weapons other than the dart gun. He must have more in the trench coat, stay prepared for anything. We started pacing around, gauging each other's movements. He suddenly lunged forward and I kicked out, hitting him in the chest. He redirected his arms and grabbed my leg with surprising strength, I pulled myself towards him by my leg and thrust with Homicida. This made him let go so he could dodge, I used the opportunity to run and get closer to Isaac. There was no time to cut down Isaac as his dad rushed up behind me and I had to duck beneath his punch. He drew two long curved dagger from his coat, dripping with a clear liquid. He changed his stance and launched a rapid series of attacks, slashing to and fro. Even with my perception slowed, I had a difficult time dodging his strikes. I changed Invicta to its buckler form and swung out in a heavy bash, knocking one of his knives out of his hands. I rushed past him; grabbed the knife, slashed at Isaacs bonds, and dropped then knife at his feet. Isaac struggled a bit more, the rope straining more and more. My attention was quickly diverted as I had to return my attention to the father, he had another dart sailing at me. I had no time to react, the dart hit me in the chest. There wasn't pain, just numbness; I started to feel drowsy, but I struggled to stay awake. The man walked up to me and pushed me down.

"Well played, but you aren't in fighting order after this toxin." The man said. "I'm honestly surprised your eyes are still following me." He looked like he was going to continue, but his face went from smug to pained terror in seconds.

* * *

Isaac

* * *

I activated my semblance, as much as I hated to. I lifted my hand and it became wispy and spectral, I plunged my hand into my dad's back. Red wisps of his aura started running along my arm as I drained his aura, he screamed in pain as I plunged my other hand in and I slammed him to the ground I held him like this for a little while before backing out. The screaming, the sensation, it was too much.

"You goddamn coward, no will to finish it." My dad pants. "I'm not surprised, you ran when you could've done this; When you could've saved that filth you loved." That was the last straw for me, I lifted up the dagger; he didn't have enough aura to protect himself after that, not a chance.

"Wait." I heard Erik mumble. "Isn't this the part where you don't take the bait and kill him, isn't he more useful alive?" He was slurring his words as he slowly drifted to sleep.

"Not this guy." I said, I plunged the dagger down.

* * *

Elith, EICE dorm room

* * *

I sat around waiting for Erik or Isaac to come back, I flipped the pages of a book I had 'borrowed' from Blake earlier. 'Ninjas of love', my word this revealed a lot about Blake. I was mostly reading this for the sake of screwing with Blake and partly out of intense boredom. Isaac suddenly walked inside and Erik was slumped over his shoulder. I quickly hid the book under my back before it could be seen.

"What happened to Erik." I asked.

"He turned his back on a monster." Isaac said.

"Second time in one month, you'd think it'd be one time to learn that lesson." I said, doubting I was getting the whole story. "Honestly, a leader should know better."

* * *

Clara, Beacon

* * *

I was napping on a bench outside Beacon after reading for a little while, I heard someone walk up and sit down next to me. It woke me up, but I was feeling to lazy to open my eyes.

"Hey Clara." Yang's voice rang happily, she started scratching my cat ears. It felt really nice, but I was annoyed anyways.

"Could you not Yang." I said meekly. "That feels really demeaning."

"But it's so soft, and that little smile of yours says otherwise." Yang laughed, I realized that I was in fact smiling at the sensation.

"Fine, you can keep scratching." I sighed. "Did you come over here for any particular reason, or do you just want to scratch my ears?"

"I was thinking we could go on a date, you haven't asked me since the forest and recent events have stalled it anyways." Yang said, my smile grew a bit more.

"Ok, sounds good." I said. "I'll meet you here after classes then." Silence proceeded for a while, I eventually put my head on her lap for comfort and she kept up the damnable scratching. Eventually I fell asleep again, marginally more comfortable than before.

 **Authors Notes**

 **Isaac and Erik's troubles aren't fully gone, but now Isaac has blood on his hands. I hope that you all are enjoying the story as much as I am. If you want to tell me what I'm doing right or wrong, leave a review.**

 **P.S: If it wasn't clear what Isaac did, his semblance allows him to steal aura from other creatures in a very painful process.**


	16. A package

**A new poll has opened on my profile.**

Chapter 16

A package

* * *

Isaac, EICE dorm room

* * *

I twirled the old slip in my hands, it was a photo actually, just rather faded from becoming wet and other forms of wear. It was torn around some edges and had a few streaks of dirt on the back, but one could still make out the picture of the 'happy' family in it. It made me sick and nostalgic at the same time, looking at this picture of my family, I hated it. I wanted to rip it up, tear it to shreds and throw it into a fire, but I just couldn't. I had grabbed this among other things off of my father's corpse and I was regretting it, I didn't want to look at it yet I couldn't put it down. There was my ten, now twenty year old twin brothers, both of them were tall, muscular, and dumb even at that age. Then my younger sister who was now fourteen, she was just as wicked as my mother; she took after mom and took a lot of tricks from her book, and I had hoped she might turn out like me. And there was my mom looking enigmatic in the back with her pale features and constant look of disappointment. And lastly my dad with eight year old me on his shoulders, he was one of three people smiling in the photo.

I looked over at the clock in our dorm room, it was 3:43 AM. I had woken up from a nightmare, I usually have them after I use my semblance. I always hated the feeling of sapping someone's aura, it was the pain it put them through and the feeling I had when I did it. The feeling scared me because when I use it I this exhilarating rush of energy and it makes me feel like I'm just as sadistic as anyone else in my family. Why couldn't I have had something like my sisters, disrupting electrical devices isn't as bad as draining the essence of someone's soul from them. I sighed and put the picture back in my bag, I finally couldn't look at it any longer. Had I done the right thing yesterday? Erik had been drugged but he was still right, he may have been better alive than dead. I then grabbed the slightly less personal item of the collection, the contract on Erik. It had a picture of Erik clipped to it and a plethora of information about him on the file.

 **Name: Erik Fall**

 **Location: Vale**

 **Reward: 50,000 lien**

 **Blood type: AB+**

 **Semblance: can slow perception of time**

 **Weapons: a red tinted sword that can turn into a bladed whip and a transforming shield.**

It continued on and on, I didn't want to read the rest of it because some parts seemed like more private information than I would want to know. I still didn't understand what was going on with this whole contract, for such a high sum and to specifically recover him alive was pretty strange for the target being a teenager. At the end of it all it was signed 'a concerned parent' so it seemed Erik was correct about the bounty being set up by his mom. I laid back down and tried to go back to sleep, I needed sleep. I wanted to keep going through the items and see what was in the envelope that was left, but I had a test in Ports class and it was hard enough to stay awake there if you weren't tired. After an hour I managed to get fitful sleep, but sleep nonetheless.

* * *

Erik, EICE dorm room

* * *

I woke up with a splitting headache, like a Beringel was repeatedly slamming my head into a rock. It got less painful after a little while and I managed to get up, I got dressed and grabbed my things for classes. I remembered most of what had happened yesterday, but towards the end of the Isaac's dad situation it began to get a bit fuzzy. I looked around the small dorm and saw that I was the second one awake, Elith was sitting on her bed reading some small black book.

"Morning Elith." I said quietly.

"Morning Erik." She replied in the same fashion. "Are you ok? You were gripping your head when you got out of bed."

"Just have a headache, nothing to worry about." I answered nonchalantly, hoping to pass over the subject. "Whatcha reading?"

"Some dumb book I borrowed from Blake out of boredom." She replied. "Apparently Blake is into romance novels, I nabbed 'ninjas of love' from their dorm room."

"She probably doesn't want that known." I said, suppressing a laugh. "Don't mess with her about it."

"I won't make that big of a deal over it, but I'm still messing with her." She replied with a grin.

I gave a look of mock disappointment to her before sitting down to pass time maintaining my equipment. Invicta is always pretty easy to clean, I just had to scrub the gauntlet and all the shields would be nearly spotless. Homicida was slightly harder as I not only had to sharpen and clean the blade, but also the hidden edges of the whip. While I was doing this, Clara and Isaac woke up.

"Finally, get dressed quickly please." I said. "We have to get out of here, classes are going to start soon." That seemed to jolt them into action. Clara quickly changed in the bathroom while Isaac just lazily slipped on a new shirt. He seemed uncharacteristically tired, perhaps he didn't get much rest after the incident yesterday. On the other hand Clara seemed to be extra chipper today, she was normally not this much of a morning person.

"Come on guys, let's move out." I said.

"Coming, coming." Isaac groaned.

* * *

Grimm studies

* * *

Sometimes Port really got on my nerves, but at least he hadn't had the audacity to put questions about his personal stories in the midterm. His stories weren't exactly the greatest preparation for these questions however, I drew most of my answers from personal experiences and studies. I finished it up semi-easily and spent the rest of the period just awkwardly sitting while waiting for just waiting for someone near me to be done. Isaac was taking his time like he always does, Clara had finished and seemed to be daydreaming, and Elith had also finished and was occupied by drawing on a blank page of the test. I considered my options for entertainment seeing that my ideal distraction was gone. Then out of the blue I felt someone flick the back of my head, I turned to see it was Ruby sitting behind me. I sometimes forgot that team RWBY sat behind us in this class, she held up her scroll and waved it at me before quickly moving to hold it under the table. Getting the message I pulled out my scroll and say I had a message from her.

'Am I the only one bothered by the fact that Port hardly prepared us for that test?'- Ruby Rose

'I am as well, Port should really just get his own unique class 'extravagant and exaggerated stories.' I think he'd be great for it.'- Erik Fall. I heard Ruby laugh a little bit behind me.

'You're right, he should!'- Ruby Rose

'I don't really know much about you, it just occurred to me.'- Ruby Rose

'What do you want to know?'- Erik Fall

'I don't know, your favorite color?' Ruby Rose

'Way too personal, sorry.'- Erik Fall

'Just kidding, it's scarlet.'- Erik Fall. His back and forth went on for the remaining half hour of class and was semi entertaining, me and Ruby gradually learned more and more of each other as it went on which was an added plus.

* * *

Elith, history

* * *

I had long ago given up on taking notes in this class, I could never write them fast enough to keep up with Oobleck's rate of speech. Instead I just recorded an audio file on my scroll and listened to it slowed down later if I had forgotten anything from the lesson. Besides, not taking notes allowed me to pay my full attention to the lesson rather than dividing it between him and a piece of paper. Through the lesson we learned about the military occupation of Vacuo and the worldwide effects of it. The subject seemed to give Isaac and Clara leave from paying attention seeing as they had probably learned all about it back home. Once the class ended lunch began and we made our way to the cafeteria, meeting up with JNPR and RWBY on the way there. Clara and Yang started conversing immediately, Erik and Ruby struck up a conversation as well. Isaac was talking with Nora, Ren, and Pyrrha started talking and I sat next to Blake, Jaune, and Weiss.

With a wide grin etched on my face I reached into my satchel and inconspicuously pulled out Blake's book and plopped it on her lap. She looked surprised by the sudden event, shock turned to horror as she saw what I had dropped in her lap. The expression was priceless and I could hardly keep myself from laughing, in fact I did burst out laughing for a second before quieting myself. Blake seemed to be at a loss for words in the situation, as most would.

"Don't worry, I won't tell." I said. I probably could've laid down some serious blackmail right then and there, but the face I had gotten to see was payment enough.

"You are going to pay for this." Blake said, I raised my eyebrow.

"How about a competition?" I suggested. "To see who can uncover the darkest secrets of the other" this seemed to catch Blake's interest.

"There has to be some reward for winning or a penalty losing" Blake asked, I pondered on that.

"How about you can share one of you findings if you win, that's two birds with one stone." I proposed. "Plus if you win, you get that revenge you were talking about.

"It's on." Blake replied calmly, Weiss suddenly noticed the conversation.

"What's on?" She interjected.

"Nothing." Me and Blake said simultaneously. This was going to be fun, I love challenges and especially ones laying things on the line like this one.

* * *

Clara, Vale

* * *

I greatly dislike like traveling in unsafe manners, so it's only natural that I have never had the slightest inclination to travel via motorcycle. Needless to say I felt perturbed when I saw that Yang had chosen that exact form of transport to go down to Vale. It really didn't help that Yang had a habit of going very, very fast whenever she could. The wind was exceptionally uncomfortable to my ears and had my hair flailing wildly, I also was constantly lashed by Yang's hair as it blew back into my face. I was wearing a sweater and sweatpants because I think that the cold weather outweighed the need for formal wear on a date, and Yang was just wearing what she always did so I didn't feel out of place in situation. After the uncomfortable we reached Vale and I was pretty sure my hair would never look normal again from how badly it had been messed up by the wind. Yang turned to me and laughed a little, I had two guesses as to why.

"You're hair looks amazing." She doubled over in laughter. "It's not the worst I've seen, but damn your hair is sticking up all over the place."

"Thanks, that really helps my self-esteem over here." I replied, she kept laughing.

"So where do you want to go?" Yang asked, the laughter dying down a little.

"You forget that I am familiar with a grand total of four locations in this town." I reminded her.

"Fair enough: there's a movie theater, a deli, a cafe, and the club I took you and Erik to." Yang suggested.

"Does the cafe perchance have pastries?" I inquired.

"Yes." She said.

"Sold, I love pastries!" I exclaimed happily, we went there without further discussion of the subject.

Once we were there we took a seat and started to talk as I slowly reviewed what I did and did not know about Yang.

"So I have a question, two actually." Yang said. "You have three unnamed weapons, why three and why haven't you named them"

"Three weapons because I like versatility, swords for close-combat, rifle for ranged, and gauntlets for hand to hand." I explained. "As for names: I don't really know why, I just never got around to it."

"For starters you could name your hook catclaw." Yang suggested with a straight face.

"Remind me why I came here?" I groaned

"Sorry, I couldn't resist." Yang apologized. "So other than being a kickass huntress, what are your interests?"

"I like to read a bit, I find Grimm fascinating to learn about, and I play video games when I can, but I'm not the best at them." I explained. "Umm, what about you?"

"I play games, master the art of puns, and do a lot of thrill seeking." She said. "What was your life like back in Vacuo?"

"Pretty uneventful really, the orphanage was not the most interesting place to live surprisingly." I said. "I didn't make many friends there, the only people who really fell under that term were three people of the staff."

"Who were they?" Yang asked.

"There was a younger man who was a hunter that stopped by every once and awhile to help out around the place and he introduced me to video games and would give me newspapers from places he went when he travelled." I said. "Then there was the head of the orphanage, he was the reason I had most of the opportunities I got and he always did his best to make sure I was set up well for life. And lastly there was a nice caretaker that did a lot of nice turns for me here and there, she was like a mom to me."

"Well, if you're going to have few friends then those sound like the right ones to have." Yang said simply. "Was it the Hunter guy that made you want to be a huntress?"

"Not exactly, it was more the places the newspaper described and the vast world his stories spoke of." I explained. "I wanted to see the world beyond the dull orphanage and being a huntress seemed to have that in the job description."

"That's as good a reason as any." Yang said, she suddenly had a look of realization and laughed a little. "I just realized something."

"What?" I asked curiously.

"I don't think this cafe has waiters, we just came and sat down without buying anything." Yang said. "We must seem so rude."

So we went up and ordered our food, I bought a chocolate danish and Yang bought a slice of apple pie. We returned to our seats and resumed our conversation, I shared a few stories of the orphanage and Yang talked a bit about her home island Patch. We shared a few laughs and had an enjoyable time, but towards the end I started to come to the dreadful conclusion that we would be heading back on the motorcycle. Unfortunately Yang noticed the time and got up to go.

"Come on Clara, wouldn't want our teammates to talk would we?" Yang joked, we headed out and began making our way to Yang's bike. It was noticeably colder than it had been when we had entered and I shivered a bit.

"Are you seriously cold Clara?" Yang asked. "It's hardly chilly out."

"You forget that I have lived my entire life in a blazing hot desert Yang, this climates strange to me." I complained.

"Sorry." Yang said: She walked over and embraced me in a way that was somewhere between gently putting her arm around my shoulder and putting me in a headlock, she was much closer like this and I started to leech off her higher body temperature. It was nice, despite the awkward way she had chosen to do it.

After a little bit we made it to the motorcycle and I endured another battering by Yang's hair and the wind on the way to Beacon. We went into the dormitory and I opted to walk Yang to her room. Once we were at the door to her dorm Yang was about to enter, but turned around to say something.

"I just realized." Yang started. "If it's not too personal, why do you think you managed to go seventeen years in an orphanage without getting adopted?"

"I don't really know, I can't quite speak for all the people who passed me by." I said, I had never really thought about that.

"Oh, well tonight was great and I can't wait for another!" Yang said happily.

"Same!" I said: smooth, what a great way to end that, 'same', smooth Clara. After that Yang walked in and her teammates almost immediately swarmed her, I made myself scarce as it seemed like a conversation I shouldn't be in.

I made my way back to my dorm and found that a package had been left at our door, I grabbed the box and saw that the package was for Erik. Carrying the package I entered the room to find my teammates waiting on me, Isaac was the first to note my entry.

"Hey Clara, how'd it go?" Isaac asked.

"How'd you even know why I was gone." I asked, I'd told none of them why I was going to be out tonight.

"Well Ruby told Erik, and he told us." Isaac shrugged, meanwhile Erik looked upset at being thrown under the bus. "Don't evade the question."

"It went well I guess, she said it was great and I think that's positive if there's no hidden message I'm missing." I said, completely unsure of myself.

"You must be one hell of a detective to deduce that." Elith said sarcastically with a grin.

"Get some rest lady killer." Erik jested.

"Before I forget: This is for you Erik, someone left it at our door." I said, handing it to Erik. "Good night guys." I climbed into my bed and curled up under the sheets, after a little while I fell into a dreamless sleep.

 **Author's notes**

 **I'm back, sorry for the lack of uploads during November. Most of my free time was dedicated to this thing called NaNoWriMo, that went well. Feel free to drop your opinion in the reviews as long as it's constructive.**


	17. A reminder of Winter

**There is a poll currently open on my page to let you influence the story.**

Chapter 17

A reminder of winter

* * *

Erik, EICE dorm

* * *

I had woken up before my alarm, everyone else was still asleep. I suppose now is a better time than any to open the unmarked package. I pulled it up from the foot of the bed, set it down on the bed, carefully peeled the tape of the top and opened it up. Inside was a letter with the same strange symbol that seemed to accompany everything my father sent to me, that cleared up who sent it. Next to that were a few full vials of dust, another box, a few new maintenance supplies, and a pendant of the symbol that was etched on the pommel of Homicida and on the chest piece of my under armor. The symbol was always a mystery to me, it bore resemblance to a forward facing bird, but I could never identify what kind of bird. After a while I just adopted it as my symbol, pretty much everyone else has their own symbols so I decided people would stop asking if I just said it was mine. I put on the necklace, it wasn't distractingly heavy despite being made of metal. I set the dust vials down on my foot locker alongside the new additions to my maintenance supplies, then I grabbed the letter. The letter had a couple of mug stains and other liquid stains on it, but they didn't mar any of the letters so it was still legible.

Dear son, or whatever you feel like me calling you.

This is a gift, I got it for you seeing as you won't be getting anything from your mother over the winter break. You're getting it this early because I didn't want mail to be slow and then get here during the break while you possibly go visit a friends home for the break. If you haven't already been a greedy bastard already, save the second box for the actual break, or you can pop it open anyways and be unorthodox like that. Heard from a friend at Beacon that you've taken to that symbol so I decided to give you a little way to show it. I also decided to save you a trip to the dust shop, and a bit of money. As for the maintenance gear, that's high quality and should easily make that blade of yours sharper than ever.

Sincerely, your dad, or your father, or pa, or whatever the bloody hell you want to call me.

Despite the offhandedness of the letter it still made me happy, I hadn't really gotten gifts like this before. I slipped the second box under my bed and threw away the first box. Despite the heartwarming it gave me it also reminded me that winter break was just around the corner and I had nowhere to go, unless I wanted to catch up with my Mom and see how that goes. Perhaps I could stay around Beacon, just me, some staff members, maybe Isaac, and a big empty campus, sounds like so much fun. I laughed a bit at the joke, Clara stirred in her sleep which reminded me to stay quiet. I was suddenly struck by an idea and slipped out of the room to go make some coffee. I went downstairs and started to work with the coffee machines. I went about gathering the packets, cappuccino for Clara, espresso for Isaac, and hot chocolate for Elith because she doesn't like caffeine. As I went about preparing these I heard someone behind me, I turned to see Weiss.

"Hey Weiss, what woke you?" I asked.

"You, I heard you going by our room and I investigated." Weiss said, half explanatory and half accusatory.

"Sorry, I was trying to be quiet." I apologized, I had almost forgotten that the RWBY dorm was somewhere between our dorm and the recreation room.

"What are you even doing up, classes are an hour away." Weiss said with extra accusation in her tone this time around.

"Just making coffee for my team because I woke up early and decided to make use of my time." I explained with a shrug.

"Could I switch teams?" Weiss asked jokingly. "Ruby doesn't pull stuff like this."

"Sorry, I think Elith pretty well covers the combat role you'd put on the table." I said, knowing she'd hate being compared to Elith.

"Don't compare me to her, I could best her any day." She challenged.

"I don't know, Elith's proficiency with raw dust makes her a pretty tough opponent, especially one on one." I replied: Weiss looked like she was about to counter that, but then backed off.

"Fair point." Weiss said.

"Hey, what is it with you despising Elith by the way?" I asked. "So far I haven't seen a proper reason provided by either of you."

"It just shocks me that someone from such a high standing family would act and dress as she does." Weiss remarked. "Her family has close ties to mine and I fear that her behaviors will influence her family's reputation and in turn our family's reputation."

"How does that even make a lick of sense?" I asked.

"Because in Atlas you can be judged for many reasons, including your friends." Weiss stated.

"Of all reasons to be judged, by the behavior of people you can't control." I said.

"It may sound ridiculous to you, but you have no experience with the social climate of Atlas." Weiss said, sounding semi-pompous like always.

"From the way it sounds, I'm glad I didn't have to deal with that." I said. "Sounds like the kind of place you can't relax without someone being angry at you one way or another."

"You're not far off with that assessment." Weiss said with a tinge of sadness. "I don't like it much myself, but I still must remain aware of the consequences of my actions and the actions of others because of it regardless."

The coffee machines indicated they were ready and I filled the four mugs I had grabbed and began to make my way back to the dorm.

"Hey Erik." I heard Weiss say behind me.

"Tell Elith that I, that I'm sorry for being rude to her this whole time." She said, I was frankly surprised by the sudden change.

"Uhh, yeah I'll tell her." I said, waving goodbye and walking off. I got back to the dorm and found that Elith had woken up, everyone else was still asleep. I set down the tray and handed Elith the hot chocolate mug.

"Erik, I don't like coffee" Elith said as I set it down. "Too bitter."

"I know, that's why I went with the safe bet of hot chocolate." I said, she smiled at that and grabbed the cup from me.

"Thanks." She said simply. "Note to self, get #1 team leader mug for Erik." I laughed a bit at that and set the remaining mugs next to my sleeping teammates and then finally sat down with my own.

* * *

Clara, Lunchroom

* * *

I had my face covered by my ever generous savior the lunch table, may it forever shield me from embarrassment and the the direct view of others. The particular reason for me having my face pressed against the table was because Yang had decided to oblige when the others asked how it went. Frankly I wanted to die while she talked about the night, partly because the retelling held more puns than the actual date and partly because It was plain embarrassing. I felt Dakota brush up against my leg and nuzzle my hand in search of scraps, I tore a piece off my hamburger and handed it down to Dakota who gobbled it up and scampered off. I finally heard Yang stop talking and started to lift my head up, Yang grinned at me and everyone went back to business

"Was all of that really necessary?" I asked her.

"Yes, it was purrfectly necessary." She said, I said nothing in the hope that she would eventually stop making puns if I just ignored them. "They asked, it's not like I divulged anything you told me."

"Thanks for that." I said, breathing slightly easier.

I checked under the table for Dakota and found that he was now begging for scraps from Ruby. He was definitely asking on more beowolf features than dog features now, he now moved like some Beowolves do and merely used his front legs to assist in his movement rather than relying on them. The front legs were also taking on a more arm like appearance, enabling him grab things now. Professor port occasionally took Dakota in for examinations for varying lengths of time so he could 'record the strange nature of this uniquity' as he calls Dakota. At least his physical changes weren't marking any change in his behaviors, he still acted like a domesticated dog and hardly ever growled.

"I still will never accept the fact that you have a Grimm that will roll over and let you scratch its belly." Yang said simply. "I maintain that as long as it's around me I have just fallen asleep and am having a recurring dream." Everyone else laughed, Isaac just stared st Yang for a moment with a deadpan face then said.

"It's time to wake up Yang." He laughed a bit at that and others laughed too.

"Do you guys want to go outside, the weather seems nice." Erik suggested.

"I second that, I heard a cold fronts coming in and we should enjoy this last bit of good weather before it comes." Isaac said, everyone agreed and we moved outside.

It was semi warm out here and the wind was still, which seemed very much in contrast to what I saw on the horizon. An unbroken mass of clouds were advancing towards Beacon in a slow procession, I could tell by the blurriness beneath them that they were raining. I laid down in the grass and watched the clouds while the others talked and meandered around. Dakota laid down next to me, his back turned to me. After a little while I was joined in laying down in the grass by Ruby, Yang, Isaac, and Blake. It was a peaceful silence until the wind started to pick up, going from still to forceful in a matter of seconds. It was bringing really cold air in that was causing me to shiver already, and looking at the clouds I realized that it was going to get worse. They weren't dropping rain.

"Its snow!" Ruby proclaimed, the world seemed to want me to freeze to death.

"Should we go inside or something, I have no idea how to deal with snow." I asked. "Is it like a sandstorm?" Yang laughed a bit at my question, and I guess partially at my confusion over the whole ordeal.

"I don't know, what's a sandstorm like?" Yang asked back. This question caught Isaacs attention and he walked over, I noted that he was shivering just as much as me.

"Imagine if all of the sand on Vales coast got caught in the wind and was carried through the valley like a violently swirling, scratchy and low hanging cloud." Isaac pitched in.

"Snows nothing like that." Yang said. "Trust me." I gave up on getting an answer from her and made my way back to my dorm with Isaac to put on warmer clothes.

* * *

Elith, courtyard

* * *

I double checked to make sure nobody was noticing my work as of yet, none of the others were looking. I his continued to pack snow into my wall, the fools would never see the attack coming. I created two clones, one to create weapons and one to peddle the weapons to me upon their completion. I held out my hand and was quickly given the first in a long line of ice cold weaponry, I scanned the group for the person to begin this treacherous war against. My eyes lit upon Ruby and I took aim, hurling the weapon on a perfect course to Ruby. The shot never made it, between me and Ruby stood Yang with her fist still held in e air after punching the snowball out of the air.

"Snow fight!" Declared Yang, chaos ensued shortly. I was quickly joined by Erik, but found myself immediately assailed by dangers. Ruby was a blur of movement, rapidly shoveling snow into the form of a makeshift wall. Yang was was approaching our fortifications from the front, Blake had disappeared and I feared the worst of her intentions, and Weiss just looked really confused and disappointed.

"Erik, keep up the heat." I said. "I have to do something." He simply nodded as I poured a bit of ice dust into my hands and slammed my hand into the ground. I channeled the energy towards the walls of our fort, raising them a little and turning them to ice for extra protection. The walls also became more smooth and slick in an effort to prevent someone from scaling them with ease, and with the last bit of dust I resupplied our floor with snow.

I rejoined the fight to find that Erik's precise barrage of snowballs had forced Yang to take a longer route to get cover on her way, Ruby was yet to leave the safety of her fort, and Blake was still yet to be found. I grabbed a snowball and prepared to fire it off at Ruby, but then I heard a twig snap from behind me. I whipped around and fire a shot after the sound, nailing Blake straight in the chest.

"They're flanking us!" I shouted. "Stay vigilant Erik."

"We could really use reinforcements right about now!" Erik shouted, looking at JNPR who had remained on the side in this conflict. They seemed to talk with one another for a little bit, but my attention was drawn away as Yang had finally come in range and began firing off snowballs at us. I feared that we may lose once Blake returned to the fray, but hope returned in the form of Nora joining us. Nora grabbed eight snowballs and leaped back out and singlehandedly drove Yang to resort to defense. This event enabled me and Erik to focus our fire on Blake, driving her back as well.

"The tides have changed!" Erik announced victoriously. "Elith, we must go on the offensive!" We leaped from cover with ammunition in our hands and charged.

* * *

Isaac, dorm hall

* * *

Damn this coat was heavy, but it was really warm with it on, so I regretted nothing. Clara had wrapped herself up in a hooded black parka, but her ears kept twitching and shifting the hood off her head to her annoyance. We came outside to see that the world had been sheeted with white powder, literally every nook and cranny of it. Even more came down from the cloud in a constant powdery downfall, it was entrancing and strange to me. Clara had an expression that reflected my amazement at the strange sight, this wasn't like anything we'd had the pleasure of seeing back at Vacuo. Dakota was not bothered by the snow, the beowolf was happily rolling around in the snow and hopping around joyously. We walked silently for a little while before Clara finally broke the quiet.

"So this is snow." She said. "I was expecting something more intense."

"Yeah, a bit of a letdown in that regard." I said. "All those people always saying during those sandstorms 'just be happy it's not an Atlas snowstorm' must not have experienced snow before."

"Probably not." Clara replied. "But people definitely haven't exaggerated the beauty of it, I think that makes up for how tame it is."

"Agreed." I replied.

Silence ensued once more and remained until we made it back to the courtyard. And there, the strangest scene I had ever witnessed was presenting itself before me. On one side was a two floored fort made of ice with Erik keeping watch on the roof, Nora guarding the fortified entrance, and a few Eliths watching from windows with Ren in one of them. On the other side was a smaller, but also two floored, fort made of snow that seemed to have its structure held up by runes of Weiss's make. The only visible guard of that fort seemed to be Pyrrha, who was keeping a sentinels watch over the battlefield. You could hear hushed murmurs from within the second fort, the recognizable voices being those of Ruby, Yang, and Jaune. Me and Clara looked at each other for a moment before yet another thing occurred to enhance the strangeness of the situation, Ruby and Weiss exited their fort and Weiss was carrying a piece of paper with her that had fancy handwriting on it.

"Attention team NERE, we have prepared the terms of the compromise." Ruby announced, there was a bit of whispering from the ice fort.

"And we have chosen to listen to your proposal." Elith announced.

"The terms are as follows; the area between ten feet from our forts is to be no man's land, indirect attacks involving surprise, subterfuge, and reducing structural integrity are to be considered treacherous and unlawful." Weiss took a breath. "Snowballs containing solid matter within them such as rock or ice are to be considered unethical weapons of mass destruction, that goes mostly for you Nora, the further use of dust is to be considered unfair and is discouraged, and lastly that the forest become out of bounds territory to both teams." There was another bout of whispers from the first fort.

"We agree to your terms." Elith announced.

"Then the ceasefire is done, hostilities resume."

As soon as Ruby and Weiss made it back to their fort Erik fired off snowball that landed as a direct hit on Pyrrha. Pyrrha responded in turn, but Erik just managed to dodge and was forced to stay under cover by a suppressing barrage from Pyrrha. I looked back at Clara and saw that we weren't the only spectators, many students had arrived to witness this all out war.

"Should we go help our team out?" I asked, Clara merely nodded and we proceeded to dash to the EICE fort to assist. Many hours passed, skirmishes were won and lost, sieges were laid, compromises and treaties made, sometimes I feared we wouldn't make it, glorious battles took place. Eventually the fight was ended, not by war and not by by treaty, by Ms. Goodwitch forcing the operation to be shut down. After that we went inside and feasted as champions, laughing and telling tales of our glory. A truly perfect end to a wonderful day, except for one thing. I realized that winter break was coming soon and I had no place to go. I thought about the issue as I fell asleep and decided to ask around if anyone bore interest in having me over for the break.

 **Author's notes**

 **I really wish I could explain why I wrote a chapter so seriously about a snowball fight, but it's too late to turn back now. I'm enjoying myself writing this story and hope you are enjoying reading it. Sorry for the slow pace of the story recently, I've been dedicating a lot to character building as I prepare to throw in bigger plot points, I'm just trying to figure out what plot points to throw in and when. As always, feel free to leave a constructive review and don't be a troll. There is a poll currently open on my page to let you influence the story.**


	18. Third party interference

**The poll will close on December 25**

Chapter 18

Third party interference

* * *

Isaac, ?

* * *

"I don't know how to phrase this, but why?" I asked Hearth.

"Why what Isaac?" She asked with that slight laugh that always accompanied the tone of the wolf faunus.

"Why aren't you afraid of me, why don't you shun me like everyone else?" I said. "There are a lot of questions that I have about our friendship."

"Initially it was because I wanted to give you a chance, it's wrong to judge someone before knowing them personally in my opinion." She said. "And now I have no reason to fear you, because I know that you aren't as vile as people assume." Appropriate to her name, Hearth always made me feel all warm and fuzzy with her kind statements. A moment of silence passed as me and her just sat quietly in the shade of the combat school, other people were running about or hiding in the shade as well.

"I'm glad you chose to speak to me whatever the reason, if you hadn't I would be sitting here alone and avoided." I said, a grin passing over my face.

"Let's talk of more positive things Isaac, what do you plan on doing after combat school?" Hearth asked.

"Anywhere but Shade, I want to be as far from my family and their legacy." I said. "Atlas probably has a few people who've paid for their services and the underground of Mistral probably has heard of them, Vale seems the best choice."

"Then we can both go to Beacon after this." She suggested.

"We?" I asked.

"I wouldn't want to part ways with you, I think I like you a bit much for that." She said, I suddenly felt her hand clasp over mine. "Would you-" The sentence suddenly cut off as the scene shifted, the beautiful wolf faunus suddenly changed into the appearance of my my angry father.

The grip on my hand tightened violently as the sentence resumed itself.

"-kindly explain what this is, do you think this family is a damn joke?" He growled, he held out his scroll with pictures of me and Hearth. "Disgraceful, of all things you had to date a Faunus."

"I have nothing to explain, you seem to have the details just right." I said, lowering my head in fear.

"Do you know how harmful this is to our image?" He yelled, I could only nod my head in response. "We have a real simple way to solve this whole affair thankfully, can you guess son?"

"No, dad please…" I begged, giving up before I even started. I knew what my dad was suggesting, I just hoped he didn't want to involve me in it. Why now? The secret had been kept for so long and graduation was so close, we could have gone to Beacon and escaped this.

"You could always fight me son if you really want to stop me." He said, getting close to my face. I was so tempted to lash out, to use my semblance and tear out every bit of life in the villain before me. But I couldn't bring myself to, I was too afraid. He just smirked and walked away, the scene changed again.

It was the next week and I was walking to the funeral of Hearth, victim to an 'unidentified' killer. I knocked on the doors of the building and the doors were opened by the sorrow filled parents of Hearth, they were not pleased to see me. The father's face filled with rage and he lashed out, punching me and knocking me to the ground. They said nothing and closed the door, and I made no attempt to get up. I only curled up and cried, I had nothing left to do anyways. It all went black and I found myself awake, face to face with Elith. She had her hand on my shoulder and bore a concerned look on her face.

"You okay Isaac?" She asked. "You were having a nightmare, you started crying and mumbling some nonsense." I just hugged her, I didn't say anything for a moment and just took joy in the fact that I could have friends without fearing the sight of their face on a funeral pamphlet.

"Are you sure you're okay, I need to at least know you're awake Isaac?" She said, hugging me back.

"I'm awake, thanks for waking me." I said. "And thanks for just being here in general." I backed up from the hug, seeing that Elith was now smiling.

"Now I'm curious what about your dream brought this on." She asked.

"I might share, but it's a bit much right now." I said, she shrugged in response and regained her normal demeanor.

"Well, try and get some more sleep Isaac." Elith said quietly, she started walking off. I slowly drifted off to sleep, the dreams were more pleasant and calm though.

* * *

Clara, EICE dorm

* * *

I woke up slowly, it was the weekend and no alarms were going off anywhere. Eventually I managed to drag myself out of my bed, I then grabbed some warm attire and changed. Then I quietly made my way outside so as to not wake the sleeping Isaac and Erik, I then went down to the leisure area of the dorm hall to make myself some coffee. Upon reaching the area I spotted few people I knew, Misty, Sage, Robin and Cadet. Misty noticed me and gestured for me to come over, I quickly signed 'wait' as I could not socially function without coffee in the morning. Once I had my mug of coffee I moved over to team CRMS and sat down.

"How are you doing Clara?" Robin asked with a wide grin.

"Aside from the chill, I'm good." I said. "What about you guys."

"We haven't been up to much, just planning out what to do over the break." Cadet said. "It's only three days after the weekend so we have to be ready."

"I don't know what to do over the break, I think I'm a pinch old for going back to the orphanage for a place to stay." I said.

"We'd invite you to join us in our plans, but we only have the budget to do what we've planned for the four of us." Sage said apologetically, he then suddenly seemed to have recalled something and dashed off. I looked at the other, but they simply shrugged in confusion.

A bit of small talk took place before Sage dashed back in, balancing four boxes precariously in his arms. He set them down on the table and took a moment to catch his breath.

"We got you and your team some presents as we won't be seeing you over the break." Robin said happily, recognizing what the boxes were. Misty grabbed the one on the top and handed it to me, my name was marked on the lid.

"Open it." She signed, smiling a little. I opened it up and inside was a blue scarf with Dakota's likeness sowed in periodically across it and my name in the middle. It was soft and exceptionally warm, it quickly brought a smile to my face as I realized one of them must have sown it.

"Misty sowed some of it in her spare time, but I did the designs." Cadet explained.

"What do you think?" Sage asked.

"It's nice, I have one question though." I said

"What" Misty signed.

"How do I put on a scarf." I inquired, they laughed a bit before Robin went ahead and helped me properly put it on. I spent another hour chatting and messing around with them before heading back to my dorm.

* * *

Elith, RWBY dorm

* * *

Nope, nope, nope, that's probably Ruby's, nothing, useless, already used that book, not incriminating enough, jackpot. After thirty minutes of unobtrusively going through Blake's thing and making sure it seemed as though no one had been here I finally found something worthwhile. A diary was like a weapon of mass destruction in this game of ours and I had gotten my hands on one, a black leather bound book that had Blake's name imprinted on it. I tucked it under my arm and walked out of the dorm, I had to hurry because team RWBY was going to be back soon and I wanted to be nowhere near the scene of the crime. There was only one person in the hallway, some tiger faunus with black pants and a hooded cloak. I passed by him and waved, he started to wave back but then his eyes lit upon what I was carrying.

"Excuse me, but what are you doing with that." He asked.

"Nothing, just reading it." I said cautiously.

"That's Blake's, she wouldn't give that to someone." He said.

"Well, umm, screw it." I said, not wanting to deal with the situation. I quickly dashed past him, whoever he was he wouldn't take this victory from me. I took a quick turn and created a clone to keep running down the hall to distract him. Unfortunately he didn't take the bait and continued after me. He ran into the room at a ridiculous speed, I instinctively put up three more clones and had them all run in random directions as I ran from the room. This confused him and gave me a head start, but if felt my fragile clones dissipating as he destroyed them.

For a time I assumed I was safe, that is until I saw him once again running at me with blazing speeds. I ran as well, procuring doppelgängers behind me as quick as he could eliminate them, This served to just barely slow him down. I could see my dorm door just ahead, it was a close run. Ten feet from the door, eight feet from the door, I could hear him rushing up behind me, 3 feet from the door. I just managed to open up the door and close it before being caught, I heard a sudden thud on the door behind me.

"Ow, open up!" The guy exclaimed. "Just give back Blake's things."

"You have to give me a chance to explain before I open this door." I stated.

"Fine, explain yourself." He said, but he didn't sound thrilled about it.

"This is a little bit of a competition between me and Blake, she's looking for the same kind of things on me." I said. "It's a fair and established competition and you're currently having Blake cheat via third party interference."

"Give me a second, I'm verifying this with her." The guy said.

"Who are you anyways." I asked. "I'm Elith by the way."

"Carter." He said as I heard him tapping away at what I assumed to be his scroll. "Ok, she says that he competitions real and that I shouldn't interfere."

"Thank you for calming down long enough to check." I said.

"She also says that she found something on you as well, she plans on that being her released item whatever that means." He said.

"Thank you, can I leave my room now?" I asked.

"Yeah." He said simply, I opened up my door and walked out.

"So are you a friend of Blake's?" I asked

"Yeah, we're old friends." He explained.

"Where are you from?" I asked.

He thought on his answer for a moment, seemingly unsure as to what he would say.

"Most recently I'm from Atlas, more specifically Mistral." He said simply.

"Me too, why'd you not go to school there?" I asked, he had a trace of a sour look when I said 'me too'.

"I didn't really like the environment, nor the treatment." He said, I immediately understood what he meant by 'treatment' and understood why he reacted to me being from Atlas like he did.

"Neither did I, too damn cold and too dense with snobby assholes for my taste." I said, half-joking. "Not one bit of that place agrees with me." He quickly loosened up a bit at my blatant statement of not being like whoever must've been rude back at Atlas.

"Good to see a shared opinion around." The tiger faunus said with a grin, his ears suddenly perked up and he looked to the right towards Clara who was jogging down the hall.

"Hey Elith, what happened?" She asked, panting for breath. "I saw like three of your clones running around aimlessly."

"Just a misunderstanding Clara, this is Carter by the way." I said, gesturing to my new acquaintance.

"Pleasure to meet you, can't say I've seen you around." Clara said.

"We probably have different classes, and my dorm is across the building." Carter explained. "So it's not surprising."

"Well, I hope Elith didn't leave that bad an impression." I said.

"Hey!" Elith replied angrily.

"No, it was my mistake that started this." He said as he started to walk away. "See you around!"

Once he had left, Clara opened up her backpack and pulled out a small box with my name on it.

"Here, this is from team CRMS." She said, I took the box and opened it up. Inside was a hoodie with an intriguing design across it in dark colours, in the middle of it were the words 'casual fashion'. I laughed a bit at that, I knew the term pissed Weiss off when applied to items like this and I was already planning on wearing it as much as possible around her.

"Tell them thanks next time you see them, they have given me a great weapon and I salute them for it." I said, with that I went back into the dorm and went about hiding Blake's diary and figuring out what she must have taken.

* * *

Erik, lunchroom

* * *

Me and my team made our way to the table, all of us with the things given to us by team CRMS. I had been given a ring that had the words 'EICE' etched into it, and Isaac was hopelessly toying with the gift of a strange puzzle lockbox that he had been at for around an hour and a half.

"Damn, half of the cues are entirely silent!" He growled, me and Elith laughed at his frustration while Clara seemed confused by his frustration.

"The cues are loud, or is that just me?" She asked. "They're fairly obvious."

"You have to help me with this Clara." Isaac begged.

"You should do it yourself, it's your gift." She said, smiling a bit at his confusion.

We passed by team CRMS and thanked them for the presents, and Sage assured Isaac that what was in the box was well worth his while. We then came upon our table, I sat next to Pyrrha and Ruby, Elith sat next to Blake, Isaac sat next to Jaune, and Clara sat next to Yang. Small talk took place, not much interesting arising in the chats past the secretive exchanges between Blake and Elith.

"So what are your plans for over the break guys?" Yang asked us, this caught me by surprise, but I knew the answer nonetheless.

"I've got nowhere to be, I'd rather not head home to my mom." I said.

"Ditto." Isaac said simply.

"I'm heading home to my family, at least my mom and brother are bearable." Elith explained.

"I don't have anything to go home to." Clara said.

"Well that's the most depressing collection of holiday plans I've ever heard." Yang said. "But kind of what I was expecting, if you guys would like our house has guest rooms and I'm sure my dad would be fine with guest for the break."

"Well, I wouldn't want to risk testing your fathers patience by taking up space and resources in your house for two weeks." I said.

"If you help out around the house he'd be fine with it, he'd only get annoyed if you did nothing helpful." Ruby said.

"Well then, ask him and if he says yes then I would be rude to turn down such hospitality." Isaac said.

"I'll pass either way, I already made my plans unfortunately." Elith said.

* * *

Elith, EICE dorm

* * *

There had to be a way to take down the site, edit me out of the pictures, erase the pictures from existence, whatever the methods I could not let Blake take them as a victory. I had been horrified at lunch to find that Blake had found some pictures of my family with me wearing, wearing dresses. Three pictures were all there were, but they spelled doom for me in this competition. I had two things on Blake and now she had three, I either had to destroy these or find two things on Blake before I left tomorrow and the competition ended. Erik suddenly walked in, it occurred to me to ask him how to.

"Hey Erik, you said your mother taught you a lot of illegal tricks yeah?" I asked.

"Yeah, why do you ask?" He said.

"Would you know how to remove a picture from the public view?" I asked tentatively.

"Show me where to find the pictures and I'll cover them for you." He said, with reluctance I pulled up the pictures for him. To my surprise he didn't comment at all about the contents of the pictures while he typed away and ran a few programs.

After thirty minutes he gestured for me to come over.

"Look it up on your scroll." He said, I did and the pictures were no longer shown on any of the sites I'd found them on.

"Thanks Erik." I said, I was honestly tempted to straight up hug him.

"No problem, considered it my winter break gift." Erik said. "Alongside this of course." He grabbed something out from under his bed and handed it to me. It was a book on various styles and applications of raw dust usage, even on the cover there were a few attacks displayed I hadn't thought of.

"Thanks Erik." I said, grinning. "I've got nothing at the moment, I was planning on bringing something back from Atlas as a late present."

"No problem." He said, without a trace of disappointment in his voice.

"You know I'm kidding right?" I laughed, I grabbed a cup from my bedside table. "I said I'd give you one." It was a #1 team leader mug I had gotten down in Vale today.

"You seriously got it, thanks Elith!" Erik said, bursting with laughter. "I will treasure this mug." I started laughing too, and the day went uneventfully from there.

 **Author's notes**

 **Happy/merry Christmas, Hanukkah, Saturnalia, Yule, or winter solstice! I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, I enjoyed writing it. I've not much to say in this note, aside from wishing you a good winter break.**

 **P.S- Carter is an OC requested to be added by MEWTWO is awesome.**


	19. A well needed break

**The poll ended and the results turned up Ruby**

Chapter 19

A well needed break

* * *

Elith, Celadon household

* * *

Looking around at my bleak surroundings only reinforced the fact that I missed Vale, the lack of flora and ever present snow made a great contrast. I knocked on the large door to my family's mansion, it always bothered me how over the top the door was among other things in the house. Around two or three minutes later the door was opened by my brother, he lit up when he saw me. He was never the type to smile very often, but he always seemed to have a more positive demeanor around me. He was taller than me by a foot and shared my red hair, and like the rest of the male side of my family he had a chiseled face. His eyes were yellow like mine, which was an odd trait of our family. He was less athletic than me however, he had spent time studying economics and business while I studied sleuthing and fighting.

"Elith!" He said happily. "Great to have you back, you must tell me everything about your first semester."

"And you should let me in on what's been going on here." I said in return. "It's good to see you again Sparrow." We hugged, he opened the door, and we walked inside together. Upon entry I scanned the entry hall, it was precisely how it had been when I left. A state of the art waste of fire dust chandelier hung over the the circular room, the floor of which was a map of Remnant with a few outdated details such as now gone towns and landmarks. Two doors and two stairways on my left and right led into branching portions of the house, the stairways had golden railings. The over the top grandeur of this room had annoyed me, but after hearing about and seeing the normal lifestyle some people could hardly afford to pay for my perception of the waste in this room had become even more disdainful.

At least my father wasn't in the room, I did not want to start my visit with his ranting and demeaning statements. Sparrow walked off and waved goodbye to me.

"I'm going to go find Mother." He explained. "Head up to your room, we had it tidied up before you got here."

"Thanks Sparrow." I said.

"Oh, on a side note Father threw out the 'unladylike' clothes you left behind during his tantrum of being told you had left for Beacon." He said apologetically.

"Damn, I only packed two sets of clothes for my visit." I groaned. "I should've guessed my clothes wouldn't be safe in my absence." I walked up the left staircase and carefully made my way down the hall it led to, treading especially silently while passing Dads study. I opened the simple grey door to my room and found it similar to how I had left it, differences being new bedsheets and the floor being shinier. My room was an organized clutter with clear paths to everything in the room, the main paths leading to my closet, my bed, the door, my desk, and my piano. I walked up to my closet and opened it, as Sparrow had said my clothes were gone. However, they had been replaced by six pairs of more formal wear and a full on dress. I sighed, set down my backpack, and walked over to my bed to lay down. Just as I was reclining, my scroll went off.

I took it from my pocket and saw that Weiss was calling me, I smiled as I was reminded that I had more than two friends in Atlas. I answered the call and put the scroll to my ear.

"Hey Weiss, what's up?" I asked.

 _"Hey Elith, I spotted you walking up the road."_ Weiss said. _"I was just wondering if you'd like to meet up some time, I guessed you'd want an excuse to avoid your Father by the way you talk about him."_

"That sounds great, I can't get out right now though." I said. "My brother and my Mother are eager to hear from me at the moment."

 _"Okay, then I'll see you later."_ Weiss replied.

"See you." I said as I ended the call, my Mother and brother entered the room. My Mom was slightly shorter than me and had yellow eyes, her hair was blonde. Her face had thin features like mine and her ever present smile got just a little brighter at the sight of me.

"Elith!" She cried out happily. "How have you been, enjoyed your time at Beacon?"

"I've loved my time at Beacon." I replied, we hugged and then she went and sat down on one of the boxes in the clutter of my room.

"So what kind of people did you meet there?" She asked. "Tell us everything." And so I recounted my adventures in Vale to my family,

* * *

Erik, Patch

* * *

I felt a small sting of pain on my ear waking from sleep, I opened up my eyes to see Ruby leaning over me. I could only assume she had flicked my ear to wake me up, seems the ship had landed at Patch finally.

"You know, there are easier ways to wake someone up." I complained, a hint of annoyance in my tone.

"I tried shaking you a bit and it didn't work." Ruby said defensively.

"Whatever, it's not that big of a deal." I said, calming down a bit. "Just try pain as a last resort later on." I pulled myself out of bed and walked to the deck of the ship with Ruby. Clara, Yang, and Isaac were waiting on us up above, Clara was talking to Yang while Isaac seemed enraptured by a conversation with the captain.

"There they are, we can go now." Yang said suddenly. We got off the ship, each of us paying our passage fee to the captain. My legs felt unsteady after being on a ship for so long, I staggered a bit before I reordered myself and could walk somewhat straight.

"The sea does not agree with me very much." I muttered to myself, I heard Ruby and Yang chuckling at my state as I walked.

"Erik, you should really see yourself right now." Yang said, suppressing her laughter a bit.

"It's pitiful enough feeling myself right now, thanks though" I joked, I looked back at them to see that Clara was having similar difficulties walking, but Yang was supporting her as they walked. Isaac looked fine though, he had clearly been on a boat many times before. We continued walking for a bit before Ruby walked up and started helping me walk straight, I nodded my thanks and we kept walking like this for a while in silence.

"So how big is the island?" Isaac asked.

"Pretty big, big enough to live on comfortably." Yang explained.

"What about Grimm?" I asked.

"Just some Beowolves and not much else." Ruby said, I moved my hand to rest near Homicida upon gaining this information. We walked quietly for a bit longer, then I started to feel more stable and could walk on my own. It seemed Ruby didn't notice my newfound stability seeing as she kept helping me along, I waited a few moments before bringing it to her attention.

"Ruby, I think I'm walking fine now." I said. "Thanks for helping me out." There was a bit of hesitation before she lifted her hand, I could've sworn her expression had borne a flicker of disappointment for a moment.

"No problem Erik." She said quickly, it was quiet for a moment.

"How much further is the house, I can't see anything through these trees." Issac asked.

"Not much further, just a few more turns." Yang explained, a few moments passed before I suddenly heard a growl to the right. I whipped around and drew Homicida, everyone else had their weapons in their hands as well. There were figures moving about in the shadows of the trees, big enough to be young Beowolves or a tall human. Judging by the growl it's likely a pack of Beowolves. I dashed forth and slashed at the nearest figure, now that I was close I could tell it was definitely a Beowolf. Homicida cut deep but didn't kill it, the beast turned to me and raised a clawed hand but was swiftly downed by a barrage from Yang's gauntlets. Another two wolves were taken out by Ruby and Clara's sniper fire, meanwhile Isaac was loading one of his dust grenades.

Three more were left standing, I turn Invicta into a kite shield and charged at the nearest beast. When I reached it I slammed he pointed end into its chin, as it reared back I slashed at the exposed neck and decapitated it. Unfortunately I failed to note the one behind me, it pounced me and got a slash in on me before Ruby shot it. The last one prepared to flee, but was suddenly frozen solid by the impact of Isaac's dust grenade.

We sheathed our weapons and got ready to keep going.

"You know, I always wondered how someone would react if I turned up at their house covered in blood." I said jokingly.

* * *

Isaac, Xiao Long household

* * *

We introduced ourselves and Taiyang let us in, he seemed nice and really open to the idea of guests.

"There'll be no issues with your stay so long as you pitch in here and there." He said.

"I'll make myself useful then." I said, Clara and Erik promised the same. We walked in and showed us the guest room with a bed and two makeshift beds taking up most of the space.

"So how did you all meet?" Taiyang asked.

"We just started sitting near each other at lunch" Clara explained. "Then our teams started hanging out after that."

"Plus we share classes with them." Erik mentioned, while everyone was talking I subtly set down my things on the real bed and claimed it.

"So what kind of chores will you need us to do?" I asked.

* * *

Clara, roof of the Xiao long household

* * *

"This wasn't what I thought pest extermination meant." I said as Ruby carefully guided me to a makeshift sniper post.

"Someone has to keep Grimm from attacking the house." Ruby countered simply.

"Fair enough." I said, we both took out our rifles and started looking around the forest. "Are you sure this platforms stable?"

"Yeah, it's never broken on me." She said.

"Hey Clara, I was wondering.."

"A dangerous pastime." I joked, she laughed a bit.

"I don't really understand your semblance, it seems oddly specific for it to only affect Grimm." She said. "Is there more to it?"

"Well, my semblance isn't controlling Grimm, what I do is funnel my own aura into another creature." I explained. "And with enough aura I can slightly influence a person or animal with a depleted aura, a defeated opponent for example."

"But why do you have full control over Grimm?" She asked, her face scrunched up in confusion.

"Because Grimm have no aura whatsoever, so with enough aura I destroy whatever they were and they become a part of me." I said, then I gestured down at Dakota pacing in the yard. "Or apparently in some cases make them something entirely new."

"That's weird." Ruby said simply. "How'd you even find out how it worked?"

"Well.." I began. "I'd been getting bored of classes and the other drawn out details of day to day life, so I took one of my swords and went on a walk. This was back when I was not quite proficient at fighting, but I was rather reckless back then so I didn't recognize the danger I was putting myself in. I was suddenly attacked by a lone Beowolf that swiftly tackled me and would've easily ripped me to pieces if it weren't for me thrusting out my hand in self-defense. My hand made contact with the dark fur of the monster and I suddenly felt strange, I could see myself from the eyes of the beast and I could feel the sand on my back as well as on four clawed feet. It picked me up and took me back to Vacuo where it was shot to pieces and I was 'rescued'. Afterwards I explained what had happened and my teachers concluded it must be my semblance, however some people had other thoughts."

"What kind of thoughts?" Ruby asked.

"Religious people thought me to be possessed and others thought I made some kind of pact with the Grimm." I explained. "The second one made the most sense to people because after that day there was a increase in Grimm attacks in our area, many people accused me of being the cause."

"That's dumb." Ruby said simply.

"I don't know which thing drove me to leave a Vacuo more, the distrust and rudeness I was shown or the nickname Grimm Girl." I said jokingly, we laughed for a moment before going back to our work.

 **Author's notes**

 **Sorry for the large delay in this chapter, my schedule as of late has made having a life an impossible task and I barely had free time to piece together this chapter. I'm unsure of when I'll be able to get another one out, but I'll try to make it soon. Feel free to leave a review, try to make it constructive criticism please.**


	20. Echoes

Chapter 20

Echoes

Elith, Elith's room

I sat on the bench in front of my piano, this was the only area in this room I regularly cleaned. I tinkered with the keys a bit, it had been some time since I had played and the white keys had become a bit of a stranger to me. After five minutes of working with it I got back on track and started playing a lively sea shanty on it. I had always enjoyed these shanties because they made me think of being out on a boat at sea rather than stuck in Atlas. Honestly that had once been a fantasy of mine, to slip out from this place and join a crew somewhere. But that was difficult, I had actually tried before only to be rejected, or sent back home by captains that knew my father. I heard a knock on my door, it was either my brother or a butler here to tell me that it was time for dinner. I sighed, so far dinner was the only time I had to interact with my father while I was here. Thankfully he had managed to only be passive aggressive towards me during this time.

I opened the door to reveal Sparrow behind it, no words were exchanged as we walked off towards the dining hall. When we got to the dining hall I took my seat at a table made to hold twenty and started to eat. I hoped to swiftly finish and exit as soon as possible, but my Father cleared his throat and gave me a look that told me that I wasn't getting out of this room as quickly as I would like.

"Elith, there's a ball tomorrow at our estate." He started, I opened my mouth to protest against what I knew he'd ask but he held up a hand. "I won't hear it, you will attend and wear a dress." I sighed, but knew there was little I could do about it.

"If you would like, you can play the piano at the ball." He added, as if playing for a crowd was some kind of compromise to me.

"Is there any particular occasion for his to happen?" I ask. "You don't generally hold balls without a purpose."

"We've recently pulled a great deal, earning a grand sum of 100,000 Lien at minimal personal loss." He said.

After a minute of congratulations on the deal, small talk about who's coming to the ball and what was going to happen there, I decided that I could now exit. As I headed back to my room I thought of tomorrow and tried to think of a method to get myself excused from attending. Faking sickness wouldn't work because I've done that before, he would find me if I took an extra long walk, poisoning myself seemed extreme as did feigning death, I concluded that if he was insisting my attendance there was nothing I could do about it. As I sat down in my room I started to play a swift distracting song on my piano as I waited to get tired.

Isaac, ?

I felt like I was awake though I couldn't move or open my eyes, but I still felt like I wasn't dreaming anymore. There was the pitch black of my eyelids before me but something else was there, on the rim of my vision there was glowing particles of red. They were like embers except the glow was more wispy, quite like an aura. This befuddled me for a moment before another event to confuse me occurred, I heard a voice coming from within my own head, echoey and weak.

'Oh, ohoho, what is this?' The voice began, it sounded familiar yet too distant to identify. 'This the afterlife or something? I expected more fire and pain for someone like me.'

"Hello?" I said tentatively.

'Oh, you're here son?' The voice continued, confirming my suspicions on who it was. 'That puts a new spin on the whole place, wouldn't be surprised if it's your brain seeing as it's so bleak and empty.'

"Dad, how are you even speaking to me?" I asked. "I killed you!"

'And here I was thinking I was knocked out, of course you killed with what you did!' He said, half angrily half proud. 'Do you think such a strong semblance would be good for anything else? Also I must say you've surprised me, didn't think you'd find a lick of courage to do it honestly.'

"That doesn't answer my question at all." I say, exasperated.

'Use whatever small bit of brain you have and think, what do I seem present as and how did you kill me?' He said patronizingly.

"Your aura seems to be what's present here, and I killed by taking every last bit of…" I said, trailing off as I realized the answer.

'Bingo, want a lollipop?' He jested. 'I think you literally sapping out my soul has left an echo of me here, I'm not sure for how long but I'm happy as long as I get to spend quality time with my least favorite child.'

I suddenly felt the ability to move return to me and the presence of my father fade, my eyes opened to see the roof of the guest room with the concerned face of Erik in view.

"Are you ok?" He said. "You were muttering some weird things in your sleep." I debated for a moment as to whether or not I should explain.

"Just a strange dream." I said simply. "About my Dad."

"Oh, if you feel like talking about that, event, I'm here." He said, waiting a moment to see if I would talk before he got up. "Get dressed and come down, Taiyang, Ruby, and Clara got into a cookie making competition and we need to be there to clean up the aftermath. I nodded and grabbed a hoodie and some blue jeans from my suitcase, cookies would be good for getting my mind off this.

Clara, Xiao Long household

I could already tell Ruby was the winner here, the real debate was between my cinnamon dusted chocolate chip cookies or Taiyang's bowl-like cookies with caramel in the bowl. Meanwhile Ruby had some simple-looking chocolate chip cookies that were giving off an unusually divine scent. His won in pizazz, but the real question here was taste according to the rules we had set before starting this. I walked into the dining room and our three judges a blindfold, once this was done we each placed one of our cookies in front of each judge. After they spent a few minutes enjoying the cookies they submitted their votes.

"The cinnamon-chocolate one was my favorite." Isaac said.

"Seconded" Yang said.

"I don't know what's wrong with you all, but that chocolate chip cookie was the single most delicious thing I've ever tasted." Erik said, they all took off their blindfolds and looked at us.

"Clara takes first place and can opt out of chores one day this week." Taiyang announced, meanwhile Ruby just stood there in shock that she had lost.

Erik, Patch's forest

I hefted the axe they had given and took a hard swing at the tree, the blade wedged two inches into the tree.

"Now that you've got a start you need to focus more on hitting the same spot rather than the force behind the blow." Yang advised as she got to work on another tree. "Isn't your semblance all about accuracy? So that shouldn't be hard."

"My semblance is about seeing everything move slower." I correct her, just because I can. "It assists my accuracy."

"Okay nitpicker." Yang says in an annoyed tone. I start slamming the axe perfectly into the same notch over and over again, after 12 more strikes the axe split through the tree and it fell over. Me and Yang dragged our trees to the yard to start making logs, it was quiet work for a while. The whole time the only sounds were the axes striking the trees and Ruby chatting with Clara beyond our hearing on the sniper post, this peacefulness was interrupted by a sudden outburst from Clara.

"Wait, you what!" She suddenly exclaimed, realizing she had shouted, she looked around awkwardly. "Sorry if I startled you guys down their."

"What worked you up so much?" I said, annoyed at the sudden shock.

"Nothing, umm Ruby just made a really impressive shot." Clara said, me and Yang looked at each other, both perfectly aware there had been no shots fired in the last minute.

"Ok then." I reply. "Just give some warning next time." Some time passed and silence was renewed before Yang spoke up.

"What do you think was all about, there was no gunfire so it was something else." She said.

"I don't know, but I feel like it was something Ruby said." I guessed, silence passed again as we set to work on the logs again.

 **Author's notes**

 **It's been fifteen years, sorry for the delay. The world seems to hate me recently, tests, too much homework, the release of for honor, sickness, all of these have plagued me with the inability to write this chapter. Hopefully I will be able to fix up a new chapter by the end of next week, hopefully.**


	21. Gifts

Chapter 21

Gifts

* * *

Clara, sniping post

* * *

I spotted an Ursa not far off from where Erik and Yang were cutting down trees, it stopped to sniff the air for a moment . I pointed it out to Ruby and we made a team shot at it, I aimed at its head while she took careful aim at its heart. Both shots hit their mark perfectly, causing the beast to topple immediately. We shared a high-five and sat down, a tradition that had become routine after five days of doing this. I grabbed the water I'd brought with me up here and took a swig as Ruby kept an eye out for Grimm, for a bit the only noises were the occasional thuds of the axes on trees.

"So what's the topic of discussion today?" I asked. "So far we've covered my past, your past, my team, your team, and why we like our weapons."

"Hey Clara, can you keep a secret." She asked.

"I guess so, what kind of-" I was cut off quickly.

"I like Erik." She said rapidly.

"Wait, you what!" I exclaimed in surprise, I then realized that Erik and Yang had probably heard that. "Sorry if I startled you guys down there."

"What worked you up so much?" Erik exclaimed, annoyance prevalent in his tone.

"Nothing, umm Ruby just made a really impressive shot." I lied, I instantly knew that was a bad cover story since we hadn't fired any shots for a while.

"Ok then." Erik replied. "Just give some warning next time." With that being over I looked to Ruby, who was in the middle of giving me her best 'why have you done this' face.

"Could you repeat that?" I asked, looking Ruby dead in the eyes. "Just in case I misheard you."

"I like Erik." She repeated, yep, hadn't misheard. I honestly didn't know how to react; should I laugh, inquire, assist, give advice, leave?

"Why are you telling me?" I say. "Isn't that more something you tell your sister or something?"

"Ok first off, do you know Yang?" She said, she had a definite point there, there was about an 80% chance Yang would straight tell Erik immediately after being informed. "Secondly, you're a friend, why can't I tell you these things?"

"Fair enough, I'm just surprised you decided to randomly blurt it out." I said.

"Sorry for putting that on you, I've just been boiling with that information for a while now." She said nervously.

"Trust me, I know how that feels." I said, glancing down at the two woodcutters. "Were you planning on telling him soon?"

"I was thinking later today after everyone exchanges gifts." Ruby said, sounding really unsure.

* * *

Elith, Celadon ballroom

* * *

I could hear the music up ahead, at least it had started without me and I didn't have to greet people as they came in. As I made my way to the ballroom I stumbled again, curse the creator of high heel to the worst fate imaginable. Before I turned the corner I made one last vain attempt to make my dress less suffocating, the blue dress was a painful reminder as to why I never wore dresses. As I turned the corner I came face to face with Weiss, who of course began immediately snickering at my attire.

"You actually look nice in a dress, I don't get why you avoid them so much." Weiss commented.

"Probably because they try to strangle me." I said, continuing to try and loosen the waist area if the dress. "And because wearing one just gives strangers more of a reason to come and flirt with me out of nowhere."

"Fair enough on the second point." Weiss conceded. "But for the first point, if you stop trying to slouch and look informal you'll breath easier."

"That sounds unnecessarily difficult to me, could you instead just show me how to loosen this?" I plead.

"I think not." Weiss said with a smirk.

"You're an awful person, you know that right?" I jest, as I said that, I heard the familiar gait of my father behind me. "Hello dad, what do you want?"

"Hello Elith, Weiss, why are you lurking up here rather than being a gracious host?" He asked.

"Because I can't dance and I'm introverted?" I replied.

"Don't make excuses, get down there now." He said, his short temper boiling to he surface of his words.

"Fine." I said peaceably, agreeing was better than getting punished for disobedience.

I walked down to the ballroom floor and rapidly weaved through crowds to get to the punch bowl as soon as possible. I grabbed a cup and prepared for the worst as I took a seat and tried to be invisible. I clearly failed in doing so, I had to deter five random guys from asking me to dance via rejection or ignoring. Occasionally I spotted Weiss talking to random people in the crowd, but I couldn't spot my brother or my Mother anywhere.

"Great, no one to talk to who doesn't have money on the mind." I mutter to myself. After a while Weiss took a seat next to me, the two of us drank our punch silently before Weiss spoke up.

"Elith, why do you spurn all of these people's simple requests to dance?" She asked.

"They aren't simple, you should know better if you've lived in Atlas your whole life." I answer. "If a total stranger makes such an advance, he doesn't care who you are, just that your family name carries money and fame." Weiss looked surprised at the response.

"That was more coherent than I expected, I thought it was going to be something more petty." Weiss admitted.

"I would say yes to such advances if they made an honest attempt to learn a bit about me past how much land the Celadons own." I explained. "That's why I never dress fancily, if I do not look the part no one thinks I've come from a rich family."

Weiss left after a bit of small talk, leaving me alone for the next portion of the ball. However my mind didn't leave the subject we had discussed, I started thinking about the standards I had stated and wondered who actually fit them. Before I could come up with an answer, my father came up to me with an unpleasant expression.

"If your to just sit here wasting time, then you'll play your piano instead." He said.

"Counteroffer, I could sit here and keep drinking this punch till the ball ends." I replied, he didn't even respond and simply grabbed me and pulled me to a piano that was set up nearby. I grudgingly sat down, then I realized that the band hired to play had ceased playing, my dad was forcing me to play for the crowd. I sighed, quickly racked my head for a song that would seem as out of place in the fancy ball as possible. I came upon the song, I took form and played the song.

/watch?v=uwQMhQajwXY

It was to no degree a ballroom song, I had to suppress my laughter at all of the people trying to figure out a proper way to dance to it. The next song was less out of place, but still hard to find a dance to. It took a partner, so I made a clone next to me, there were audible gasps from the crowd as I did this.

/watch?v=jyPY0Bm7Cjg

After that I got off the piano before my father could come after me for not playing proper ballroom music.

* * *

Isaac, the living room

* * *

I was lounging on the couch watching tv; dust robberies were becoming frequent in Vale, it was going to be snowing tomorrow, a celebrity changed their haircut, and there had been a Grimm attack in Forever Fall. I was unbelievably bored out of my mind to say the least, it was that time when Ruby and Clara were on the roof, Erik and Yang were doing outdoors chores, and I was already done with every chore on my list. Gave me too much time to think, and for my father's echoes to come bother me. It had gotten worse than when it first started, he was becoming more than a bit of light. I had begun hallucinating his form comprised of his crimson aura, moving around in a strange and floating fashion. And there he was again, pacing around the room.

 _"This place is nice, I would have gladly killed these people to live here."_ He commented as he examined the house. _"Despite all I say about hunters, they sure are paid handsomely."_

"Most of them don't do it for the money." I lazily submit as I turn off the tv to focus on him.

 _"Don't bring up such high and mighty ideals, face the fact that everyone wants wealth."_ My dad said cynically.

"Of course you'd say that, your the hired killer with little in the way of morals." I sigh, he suddenly dissipated as Yang walked in.

"Who were you talking to Isaac?" She asked, seeming very confused by what had been said.

I took a moment to think on what to say, Yang would call me crazy if I mentioned what was actually going on.

"Umm, just responding to something I saw on the television." I say, me and Yangs eyes just look at the black screen of the tv. "...Earlier." Nice save Isaac, no space for suspicion there.

"Sure, so who were you talking to?" Yang continued.

"Not only would you call me crazy, it would take a history lesson and an oath of silence on the topic." I say.

"I have time, I've done my chores." Yang persists.

"Well I should open by explaining my semblance." I begin. "I'm able to drain the aura and life force of others, it inflicts excruciating pain and can potentially kill."

"Sounds pretty draining to use." Yang said uncomfortably, I ignored the pun and continued.

"I've used it three times in my life because I hate using it, it's unpleasant to use to say the least." I explain. "Once harmlessly on discovery, once on accident in a sparring match, and more recently on my father."

"I suppose the third ones the history lesson?" She asked, I nodded and proceeded to explain everything, from who my dad was, the ordeal with Hearth, and what had occurred with me and Erik. Yang listened patiently, not interrupting once to my surprise.

It felt good to let all of this information off my chest, I don't think I'd ever told the full story to anyone. I don't even know why I chose to say so much to Yang, I just needed to confide all of this to someone.

"Well don't worry about me telling, after hearing all of that.." She paused. "It was grim, but justified, and i'll back you if it comes back to bite you." She seemed bothered by all of the information, but she seemed honest in what she said.

"And I thought that was the end of it, but recently something's been happening." I say. "I've been hearing him talk to me in my dreams and I've hallucinated his form when no ones around, I think that my draining of his aura left an echo of him with me."

"So that's who you were talking to?" Yang asked.

"Yeah." I say simply. "I'm probably just insane."

"I don't think so, you seem coherent enough." Yang said.

"Thanks I guess, I'm glad you let me talk." I say, getting up. "Now I have to go organize my presents for this afternoon, see you."

* * *

Erik, living room

* * *

As we all gathered with gifts in tow to exchange with each other I took a moment to reflect, this was the first of these exchanges I'd ever been to. Not that I'd ever had the friends or caring family to have one with anyways, things were turning out quite positively in my life. I had friends around me, a semi-normal life, and the feeling of being welcome for once. Isaac walked up to me and handed me a brown box, it felt heavy.

"I've built something for you, a little modification for you." Isaac said. I opened the box and found what appeared to be a hilt fitted to Homicida, I drew my sword and found that the hilt easily clipped to it, it had a switch that tied to the original switch and a button. "I thought you might be tired of not having range, it's a makeshift pistol attachment." I pressed the button and sure enough a pistol barrel popped out with a trigger.

"Nice!" I say with a smile. More gifts were exchanged; I got a book of puns from Yang, a strange bird feather charm from Clara, Taiyang gave me the wood cutting axe I'd been using all week. Everyone else exchanged their gifts while I put on the charm and got used to the new weight on Homicida.

After the gifts were exchanged it was quiet for a time; Clara had a better scope on her rifle and a set of warm fur clothes, Isaac had gotten a collective gift from us all in the form of numerous pieces to a device with no instructions, Yang got a comically sized comb and a pair of sunglasses, and Ruby got some weapon maintenance supplies as well as a recipe book for cookies. The next objective was to find a way to stay entertained until dinner, Yang suggested competitions. The next few hours were spent seeing how far people could throw things, Beowolf hunting, and sparring matches. This was followed by a large meal and people telling stories. I started to tire before everyone else, so I headed up to the guest room to get some rest. As I walked up he hall I heard someone behind me, I turned to see Ruby. I stopped seeing as she clearly wanted to talk.

"Hey Erik." She said nervously.

"What is it?" I ask.

"There's something I've wanted to tell you about." She continued, this piqued my interest.

"Go on." I say

"We've known each other a while and I think your really cool, you're nice and a good leader." She said. "Umm, would you like to date?"

 **Author's notes**

 **I was on vacation and every hotel I went to did not have complimentary internet, this could have been uploaded days ago. I'm sorry, but at least I finished it. As always please leave a review.**


	22. Return

Chapter 22

Return

* * *

Elith, Elith's room

* * *

I packed my bags, minorly fixed up my room, and put on a t-shirt that had Beacon's symbol on it and some jeans. I kept my Sanguinems attached to my belt, I always feel safer with them on me. I made sure I had my ticket for travel and walked out of my room and exited the house after saying farewell to my mom and Sparrow. As I walked down to where my ride was, Weiss caught up with me and began walking with me.

"So I had a fun break of hiding in my room to avoid my father, what about you?" I ask

"You really don't get along with him, do you." She said.

"Not in the slightest, none of my actions please him and none of his expectations are what I want with my life." I explain. "I don't think there's anything me and my father could agree on, by the way you dodged my question."

"It went well, more or less." Weiss said vaguely.

"Why did I even bother?" I said, it was silent as we walked the remaining distance to the airship.

Me and Weiss took seats next to each other and began talking again.

"I can't wait to be back in Vale, it's warmer and there are less prigs." I say.

"Not to mention our teams, despite myself I've come to like my teammates." Weiss said.

"Oh dear, how could you have made friends?" I jest.

"I would say the same of you, you're the introvert here." Weiss retorted.

"Fair enough, it's just that I can't see you getting on so well with two free spirits and an ex-white fang member." I counter.

"That's why I said 'despite myself' Elith." Weiss said. "How are you getting along with your group?"

"Well, Clara's a straightforward and likeable person in my opinion." I say. "Erik's led us pretty well so far and isn't too bothersome as a person, and Isaac has been nothing but nice and agreeable so far."

"Good that you can get along with your team." Weiss said, silence fell again and I started to fall asleep.

* * *

Erik, clearing in Patch's forest

* * *

I tuned everything out; the chatter of the audience, the wind in the trees, the scraping of her weapon on the ground, Zweis incessant growling at Dakota. I put all of my focus on each movement of Red; how fast her steps were, how she gripped Crescent Rose, and the changes of her expression. We circled halfway around the clearing before Ruby made the first move, all I saw was a streak of crimson blazing towards me. The scene rapidly slowed, Ruby was still incredibly fast, but it gave me time to react. I ducked and kicked out my leg, she didn't anticipate this and her momentum sent her flying past me from her trip. She caught herself by planting Crescent Rose in the ground, she quickly fired some shots at me to keep me from being an opportunist. They all missed and I took the lull to use Isaac's modification, as promised a barrel and trigger sprouted from the hilt. I took three shots, one hit Ruby, but there was no time to celebrate. She ran at me with a vicious swing from her scythe, I just managed to catch it with my shield. We were locked face to face by the block, I took the chance and head butted her followed by a slash from Homicida.

"That's the problem with two-handed weapons, get into a clash like that and you have no other weapon." I say with a smirk, I instantly regretted pausing to talk as she was already up and slashing at me. I wasn't quick enough to dodge and the scythe caught me, she quickly catapulted me into a tree. I just managed to make Invicta a greatshield before impact, my impact was dulled and I kicked off the tree. I checked my scroll once I landed, I was in the yellow.

Invicta became a buckler and I turned Homicida into a whip, we returned to circling. I struck first this time, aiming for Crescent Rose with my whip. The whip wrapped around the scythe and I tugged as hard as I could, but Ruby pulled back whilst firing Crescent Rose, effectively reversing my disarming tactic. Equipped now with solely Invicta I held up my hands in surrender, without Homicida I could only fight so well with Invicta.

"Fair win, note to self: don't try to disarm someone using a two handed weapon." I say.

"Ruby wins!" Yang announced, ending the sparring tournament we had decided to have before heading back to Vale. I'd won the last few matches, but it seemed Ruby had the upper hand in this situation. Ruby came up to me so we could walk together on the way to the boat to Vale, I silently waited for what she would inevitably.

"So when are we going to go on that 'test date' you proposed?" She asked, I thought through my answer. When she'd asked me out last night I didn't know how to respond so I didn't and instead proposed going on a 'test date' to see how it seemed, it was just a front for me to think about it. My only real issue was legality, I would have to check for rules about whether an 18 year old could date a 16 year old and whatnot. Other than that I had no issue trying to date Ruby other than my horrible habit of procrastinating on decisions.

"Calm down, I don't even know what my schedule looks like this week." I said evasively. "This weekend at the latest." She seemed satisfied with that answer and we walked the rest the way in comfortable silence. Once we got on the boat my strange aquatic narcolepsy kicked in and I fell asleep in under two minutes.

* * *

Isaac, some ferry boat

* * *

Three left rotations *click*, push symbol 1 down for two seconds *click*, two right rotations *faint click*, shake until *click*, twist symbol 2 38 degrees *no cue*, open catch on bottom *no cue*, solve uncovered puzzle *faint click*, open box *no cue*, press the three correct symbols on the revealed sphere *click*, twist sphere 10, 20, 30, 40, 41, 42, 43 degrees left! I stared in wondrous silence as the sphere opened up, I felt relief as I had finally cracked the code to the puzzle box. It occurred to me that I had spent way too much time obsessing over this if I was this worked up about it. Inside the sphere was a ticket that had fine handwriting on it, it read 'present to Sage'.

"I half expected that to say that the gift was in the experience in solving the box or something." Clara jested.

"If it was then I would have had some choice words for CRMS." I said with no humor in my words.

"Who knows, maybe that's what Sage will say when you give him that." Clara said with a shrug as she returned to testing how deep of a sleep Erik was in by poking him now. With one mystery out of the way, I began working on assembling the mess of parts I had been given. After half an hour of working on it I put the parts back and walked up to the deck of the ship.

It was cold, a breeze was blowing in from the west and I could see clouds coming from the same direction. I hope it isn't snow, I don't want to walk to Beacon while wading through snow. I looked out over the water to see if there was anything of interest, the only thing in sight was the oncoming shore of Vale. Of course if any aquatic Grimm were around I wouldn't be able to see them, the water wasn't clear. The monotonous noise of the water lapping against the boat was suddenly interrupted by the roaring engine of a bulkhead, looking up I saw an Atlas bulkhead flying overhead. Seems like the Atlas students are back from the break as well, hopefully Elith's on there for the sake of timing.

* * *

Clara, docks of Vale

* * *

After spending five straight minutes trying to wake up Erik, we finally disembarked the ship and began heading up the street. As we walked we met up with Weiss and Elith as they disembarked their bulkhead.

"Hey guys, how'd your break go?" Elith asked, we all shared stories of what we'd been doing over the break. "I'm jealous, you were hunting Grimm while I was dying of boredom in my house."

"Oh how dreadful, we got to risk death while you were in a comfy mansion." I teased.

"Touché." Elith replied. It was nice to be back in Vale, at Patch I had to always have weapon in hand while walking around in case a Beowolf or an Ursa popped out. We saw no need to dally in town as a snowstorm was coming, so we started to jog to our ride. We managed to catch the last flight up to Beacon and arrived just as the snow started falling. As we made our way to the dorms we met Blake who had apparently stayed at Beacon over the break.

"Hey, if you had said something we could've taken you with us." Yang complained.

"I had other concerns on my mind." Blake said, I noticed that she had bags under her eyes but I chose not to ask about them.

* * *

Erik, EICE dorm

* * *

As we all got into our beds I slipped off my shoes and slid them under the bed, they bumped into something. It was a small box, the second box from my dad's gift, I had forgotten that I'd left it there. I picked it up and opened it, inside was a strange metal device that looked like it was supposed to clip to the ear. It was black and shaped like a scale, the word 'vigilantiam' was carved into it. I put it on, it was comfortable and non-bothersome, it produced no noise or anything so I was left confused. Then I noticed the note at the bottom of the box.

 _The vigilantiam is a useful tool, it'll beep when it detects someone coming up behind you. It will speak a direction if it detects sounds of fighting that you didn't hear. It is a prototype, the tool will not always go off when it should._

The page seemed to have been torn from an instruction manual, given the tear marks and how the tone of the note didn't match my father's other letter. I set the earpiece on my bedside and slipped under the sheets. I drifted into sleep and dreamed of my third meeting with my father.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked him.

"I mean that if you actually opened your eyes for once and looked at how your mom and her friend were, you'd get why you shouldn't be here." He said.

"If the two of you hate each other so much, how did I come to pass?" I asked, a question that had been stuck in my mind. "How come you eloped with someone whom you seem to have such negative opinions about?"

"We were both younger, and she either was not or was better at concealing the kind of person she was." He explained. "It wasn't supposed to be major, but of course with my damn luck…" There was silence between us for a while.

"Take this envelope, sign the papers." He said. "It's your ticket out of here and to doing what's right." The scene faded and the rest of my sleep was dreamless.

 **Author's notes**

 **Well that was mostly filler, just an explanation of how they got home. As always, please leave a review and make sure any criticism is constructive.**


	23. Steel over Beacon

Chapter 23

Steel over Beacon

* * *

Elith, dorm building roof

* * *

Recently I had developed a habit to watch the sunrise on weekends, it was calming to be up here instead of around the chatter and clutter of the student body. But today something disrupted my sunrise, airships- a whole fleet of them. They seemed armed for war; some I recognized as passenger ships, but many others were indisputably warships. They were of Atlas make, so my initial panic of seeing a war party faded. It was the students of Atlas, being flashy with their military as always. I sat down, my morning soured, I could name a few people on those ships I'd rather not bump into. I watched them land and people pour out of them, people and automatons, the second part bothered me. I can understand the warship vanguard for protection from Grimm, but why bring a land army as well? Something about their arrival held a dark undertone for me, but as an old friend had told me, 'don't trust gut feelings, trust proof.'

Below me I heard windows being opened and people looking outside to see the new arrivals, I also heard the door behind me open up. I turned to see Jaune coming onto the roof, he had his scroll in his hand with a paused video of Pyrrha on it.

"Oh, I'll uh, come back later." He said, turning tail to leave.

"It's fine, you can stay up here." I say, confused by his reaction to seeing me.

"You don't mind?" He asked, taking his turn to be confused.

"Why would I, it's not like I own the roof or anything?" I answered, he nodded his thanks and propped his phone up against a wall. It started playing Pyrrha voice calling out a training routine and Jaune followed suit, he kept form well enough and went through the whole routine with only one or two rough patches. He took a break and sat down, setting his equipment next to him.

"You've improved, a lot for that matter." I applauded him. "By the way, you never answered my question."

"What question?" He asked.

"Why would I have a problem with you?" I repeated.

"Well you don't talk to me that much and down in the forest you kept being rude to me." Jaune explained, I thought for a moment before I remembered what'd happened.

"Oh, I didn't mean that to be rude." I apologized. "Sorry, I can be blunt sometimes."

"Really?" Jaune said, with an undertone I could've sworn was sarcasm.

"The comment on your aptitude no longer stands, your routine proved that and I regret my statement." I continued. "But I am confused about why you took offense to the weapon comment, you didn't make it so it shouldn't be personal."

"It's a hand-me-down, my great-great grandfather used it." He explained.

"Oh, now I see." I said. "It's a meaningful item and I insulted it, I'm sorry."

"Thank you." Jaune said simply, silence passed for a minute before he spoke up again. "Why is there a war-fleet here?"

* * *

Erik, EICE dorm

* * *

It took a while to figure out, but I'd finally accessed the programming of the Vigilantiam. There was a lot to do, but after a few hours of work I fixed all of the issues I had with it. for example how it beeped like a timebomb every time I walked in a populated area, or how it would think my own footsteps were footsteps behind me. Upon finishing this I decided to go outside, I had to get to lunch. As I walked, I saw many students wearing uniforms bearing the Atlas logo. Seemed Atlas students had arrived, they were moving about in small organized groups about the place. I continued on my way until I reached the lunchroom, when I reached my table I saw that three extra people were sitting there today and Clara was missing. There was a blonde monkey Faunus, a blue haired guy with yellow goggles, and a tiger Faunus. I took my seat and was swiftly introduced to the newcomers.

"This is Sun, Neptune, and Carter." Ruby explained, I decided to talk to Carter.

"So Carter, what brought you to this table?" I asked.

"I'm friends with Blake, I'm also here to be angry at Elith." He explained.

"Elith, what did you do?" I asked, she tossed a book at me. It was a copy of 'Ninjas of love' with an index card taped to it reading 'property of Blake Belladonna' on it. Blake glowered at me, and Elith chuckled.

"I won the right to do this fair and square." She said. "Stop being sour about it."

Me and Carter talked a while longer before he started talking to Blake, with that Clara showed up at the table with Dakota trailing behind her.

"Where were you?" Yang asked.

"Professor Port wanted to examine Dakota again." She explained.

"What more does he have to learn about Dakota?" Isaac asked. "It's a Beowolf with an aura and inverted colours, the end."

"He discovered that Dakota has the same ability as Grimm to locate negative emotions, but he tries to comfort them rather than eviscerate them." Clara said.

"Hmm, I would've thought he'd be able to sense positive emotions." Blake said. "It would fit how he's been the reverse of all the other Grimm traits."

"Well I guess his anomalous nature doesn't agree with you." Erik said. In the meantime Sun, Neptune, and Carter looked between each other with expressions of shock and confusion at the sudden entrance of a docile and strange looking Grimm.

"Look, the origin is confusing and nobody knows why it happened." Elith said to them. "Don't even bother asking, just accept it."

"I have a pet wolf, but how on Remnant does a pet Beowolf work?" Carter asked.

"My semblance allows me to control Grimm, but this one was made in special circumstances." Clara explained. "We still don't fully get what happened." Some more time was spent with the ins and outs of Clara's semblance being explained.

"So are you guys going to sign up for the Vytal festival tournament?" Yang asked, clearly bored with the current topic.

"We haven't discussed it yet, team vote?" I said; Elith, Clara, and Isaac gave thumbs up. "Seems the answer is yes."

"How could you have not discussed that yet?" Ruby asked. "It's coming up so soon!"

"It's in two months Ruby." Isaac said.

"That's soon." Ruby said. By this time everyone had finished eating and parting ways. As I got up and walked off, Ruby followed me.

"Hey Erik, when will-" She started, I cut her off as I knew what she would say.

"Day after tomorrow, you can pick the place." I said, she seemed satisfied and walked away.

* * *

Clara, dueling hall

* * *

Duck, sidestep, slide, roll to feet, sidestep, roll. Pyrrha's barrage was getting more predictable the longer it went on, somehow I felt it wouldn't be so easy in the actual Vytal fights. Team JNPR was practicing with us, trying to get in the rythym of fighting hunters rather than predictable Grimm. Me and Pyrrha switched roles, I began a barrage from my rifle and my gauntlets as she switched to dodging. Between having a shield, magnetic powers, and lifelong training, Pyrrha was much better at avoiding hits than me. We switched back and forth practicing firing and dodging for an hour, I spent he rest of the time practicing swordplay with Erik. After it was all done we took a break and played Remnant: the game. Erik was Vale, I was Vacuo, Jaune was Mistral, and Nora was Atlas. I played safe, building forces and taking ideal strategic points whilst avoiding invoking the aggression of the others. I waited until I had the ideal hand before starting any fights, I started by making a quick strike against Erik with weak units to make him strike with his air fleet. Which let me risk retaliating with the giant nevermore card, but my lack of aerial units let me have no fears. I succeeded and his fleet was destroyed, followed by me preparing my invasion.

But as my siege of Vale continued, an unexpected threat unveiled itself. Nora and Jaune allied to strike me whilst my troops were spread thin, they cooperated to take a line of territories between Vacuo and Vale, effectively blockading any support from home. A few turns later, Jaune captured Vacuo. Vale became essentially a pesky rebellion in the grand scheme of Jaune and Nora's nation, eventually fading out into nothing. Only the pitiful ruins of war torn Vacuo and the empty sieges city of Vale were left in the wakes of the bloodthirsty Arc-Valkyrie alliance, a sad end fit for the nature of the war that tore apart the world of Remnant. Wow, this game really gets way too involved, for a moment I almost cried.

* * *

Isaac, Atlas android storage ship

* * *

I examined he construct over and over again, taking in every detail. It was definitely a new model, more maneuverability and attachments. I had seen Atlas robots once or twice before, they always fascinated and terrified me when I saw them. They were impressive creations, but I never wanted to have them facing me. You can't reason or find common ground with an automaton, if it has the kill order all you can do is kill it first. Something with no conscience shouldn't be given a gun, my dad's example enough of this.

 _"Hey, I do too have a conscience."_ He said.

 _"And you showed so much evidence of that in life."_ I thought, he'd recently gained the talent of reading my surface thoughts.

 _"Bah, you won't listen to me."_ He said. _"Why do you think they brought a standing army to Beacon?"_

 _"To show off?"_ I thought.

 _"I don't see these bots waltzing around, do you?"_ He said. _"Why'd you come in here?"_

 _"You always said curiosity would kill me."_ I thought.

 _"And I hope my echo lasts long enough to see that day."_ He said bitterly.

 **Author's notes**

 **Do any of you ever play a board game and just get way too involved in what's happening? I know I do. Also, you know what's great? Having the wifi break at your house and being incapable of posting until you can go to school in the morning. Please leave a constructive review and don't be a troll.**


	24. Plan B, C, and so on

Chapter 24

Plan B, C, and so on

* * *

Erik, Isaac, Clara, Elith, RWBY dorm

* * *

"So, just to clear up all confusion, let me just review this proposition." Erik said. "You want us to help you out in the dismantling of a major crime organisation run by a partnership between the White Fang and a ginger guy with amazing fashion sense."

"Basically." Yang said simply.

"Just eight students against the world?" Clara said.

"Ten, don't discount us Clara." Sun said as he walked into the room.

"Oh yeah, they butted into this." Ruby said.

"Why do I feel like this plan isn't as flawless as it seems." Isaac said.

"It isn't, but it's better than doing nothing." Blake said pragmatically. Team EICE looked between each other, after a few moments Isaac gave thumbs down. Clara gave thumbs up, Elith gave thumbs up, and Erik gave thumbs up.

"Seems we're helping." Isaac said. "What are we to do?"

"Clara can join up with me and Sun, she hasn't been seen by Torchwick and can stay undercover if they get caught." Blake said. "Erik and Isaac tech savvy, they could try and tap their communications."

"What about me?" Elith asked.

"You have detective training don't you?" Weiss asked. "Search for clues as to what they have planned."

"So where do we go?" Isaac asked.

* * *

Clara, warehouse

* * *

"I'm surprised the guards let me distract them for so long." I whispered to Blake. I'd kept the guards attention by feigning confusion and interest in the White Fang for nearly two minutes before he finally told me to go in and learn for myself, enough time for Erik, Isaac and Elith to get into position.

"Shh, don't speak of deception next to the people you deceived." Blake replied. We proceeded silently into the next room, Faunus and White Fang filled the room. On the stage was one White Fang members and two humans, strange for the White Fang. The ginger person started a long monologue that I only payed a little attention, that is until he pulled down some cloth to reveal a giant metal mech. He spoke a while longer before our group started moving forward, I heard Sun whisper something about being seen. I moved quietly ahead, my job was to maintain cover and regardless of their status I would hold my role. Suddenly there was a gunshot and the lights went out, I saw the humans and some Faunus flailing about as Blake ran with Sun to break through a window. The ginger human managed to get into his mech and follow them, by breaking down the entire wall. Some White Fang members gave chase as well, as well as the short human.

"Plan B." I muttered to myself as I decided to give chase as well, to cover up me following the girl with the umbrella.

She took a turn down an alley and I followed, quietly. I turned the corner and registered two things quickly; there was a airship here, and I had the bladed tip of an umbrella pointed at my face. I didn't take time for banter, I kicked out as fast as I could, nailing the girl in the chest. She staggered and gave me enough time to draw my swords, I took up a defensive pose and prepared for retaliation. There was none, she fled back and got into the vehicle. It took off before I could catch it and flew towards the highway, I sighed and began heading back the way I came. As I exited the alley I was greeted by a pair of cops, after which I realised I had a Grimm mask on and my weapons drawn.

"Hello officers." I said, as casually as I could muster.

* * *

Elith, Isaac, Erik, upstairs warehouse

* * *

*click* Elith snapped a photo of the map laying on the table, then a few more of the dust crates laying around. She made sure not to touch anything before taking a picture of it, and taking extra care to not over-adjust things when she did touch them. So far the scene didn't look special to her, it just looked like an ordinary criminal den for dust theifs. Only one thing was odd, they had a machine here outputting a secondary signal for their scrolls. A private service provider that recoded CCT signal and rebroadcasted it as an untraceable signal, unless you have a device connected to the source. Erik and Isaac were working on connecting Erik's scroll to the network, it was almost relaxed up here, despite the noises of a rousing speech downstairs.

"You guys any closer to figuring out the broadcaster?" Elith said.

"Almost, five minutes give or take." Erik said. Silent work resumed as Elith looked through a file cabinet for anything useful.

After a while a loud gunshot was heard downstairs followed the building shuddering, Elith looked up from her work while Erik and Isaac stayed put.

"That wasn't a good sound." Isaac commented. "I guess that signals plan B."

"You don't say?" Elith said sarcastically. "I'm going to go check that out." Elith walked out of the room only to rapidly re-enter rapidly and shut the door behind her.

"Are you guys quite done?" She asked. "If not, might I suggest hurrying up?"

"What's happening?" Isaac asked.

"Nothing, just a couple dozen White Fang headed up here." Elith said. "Plan C"

"Stall, we need about 48 seconds." Erik said. Elith groaned and poured some blue dust in her hand, she released a jet of frost along the edges of the door to freeze it shut.

"That won't buy much time, hurry." She said, panic dripping more into her voice with each word. As if to emphasise her words, people started banging on the door.

"It's done!" Erik shouted. His face turned from a grin of success to a look of horror as an image flashed across his screen, a black queen chess piece. Erik threw the scroll down and stomped it to pieces, much to the confusion of Isaac and Elith.

"What the hell Erik!" Elith shouted.

"No time to explain!" He replied, he ran to the window they'd entered through and leaped through. The others followed suit, just as the door was kicked open.

* * *

Erik, streets of Vale

* * *

Why, why'd she have to be involved in this? Did this mean she was here or involved from afar, I hoped greatly for the latter. I put my mind back to running, I looked back to see Elith and Isaac following me with five thugs on their trail. I sighed, we weren't going to shake these guy. I stopped running and turned to face them, I put a gravity crystal in the blade and a soft purple glow covered the blade. I took a stance for a sweeping strike and waited for Isaac and Elith to get behind me, then I slashed out and released a wave of force that knocked the fighters off their feets.

"Time for plan D!" I called.

"What on Remnant is plan D!" Isaac replied.

"Improvisation!" I shouted. "Technomancy- thunderclap!" Elith and Isaac responded immediately, Elith weaving a streak of lightning in her hands while Isaac tossed a grenade of wind dust. The blast of wind sent the men flying then Elith fired the bolt of lightning and weaved it through each of them. Two of them didn't get up from it, but the other three still seemed in working order. "SteelBird- vault!" I rushed forward, went to my knees, and hoisted Invicta into the air as a buckler. Isaac rushed to me and jumped onto my shield, I thrust him into the air. From midair he threw one knife into the foe to my left and then landed on the one in front of me. The last one remaining chose wisely and fled, I saw Elith preparing to throw one of her Sanguinems at him.

"Let him go, maybe save us some future trouble." I said. "He might tell his friends to leave us the hell alone."

"Are you hungry or is it just me?" Isaac asked.

* * *

Isaac, streets of Vale

* * *

After grabbing a bite to eat we waited to be contacted by team RWBY, but a different number rung on my scroll.

"Clara, where are you?" I asked.

 _"Funny you might ask, I'm in a jail cell."_ She replied.

"What did you do." I asked.

 _"Run in public with a weapon drawn while wearing White Fang regalia."_ Clara replied. _"Apparently that's considered 'suspicious behaviour'."_

"We'll come get you." I assured her and hung up. "Hey guys, Clara got arrested."

"Of course it's the Faunus that the police arrested." Elith jokes.

* * *

Elith, police station

* * *

"How on earth can you say we don't have enough evidence to detain her?" The man at the desk said. "She exited a dark alley, sword in hand, wearing a Grimm mask trademark of a terror cell."

"Wrong, she was wearing a mask correct, but Grimm masks are available to many and not just White fang." I said. "She was wearing no other articles of clothing that pertained to any known chapter of the white Fang."

"She still had weapons drawn in a public place though." He insisted.

"Huntresses and hunters, in training or not, are allowed to have weapons drawn if they have good reason such as being threatened." I countered. "According to her, she had a weapon drawn on her in the alley."

"Fine, she's free to go." He said, he continued with a mutter. "I swear if this comes back to bite me.." With that we left.

"Thanks for that Elith, I expected them to have us pay bail or something." Clara said happily.

"Don't thank me for that, thank my impromptu skills." I said. "I wasn't sure about either statement." Isaac broke out laughing.

"Seriously?" He asked, I nodded. "Wow Elith, lying to cops."

"Shut up." I replied. We returned to Beacon with only a little bit of small talk, entered our dorms and flopped down onto our respective beds. We all fell asleep quickly, it'd been a long night.

 **Author's notes**

 **Team attacks:**

 **Technomancy- Isaac and Elith**

 **SteelBird- Isaac and Erik**

 **DesertStorm- Isaac and Clara**

 **SandBlade- Clara and Erik**

 **BlackCat- Clara and Elith**

 **SpellBlade- Erik and Elith**

 **Why'd it take so long to think of those? Please leave a review, we're approaching the good parts.**


	25. Paranoia

Chapter 25

Paranoia

* * *

Clara, History class

* * *

Is it just me or does Oobleck talk faster the longer the lesson goes on? Maybe it's just because I'm tired, last night was tiring and I got to bed really late after all. Between my weariness and inability to match Oobleck's pace, I was starting to consider emulating Erik's system of 'note taking'. A minute later the lead on my pencil snapped as well as my conviction to properly take notes. I setup my scroll and started recording, but for little good as the class period ended almost immediately after I pressed record. Life has a cruel sense of humor doesn't it? I walked out of the room to head to lunch, on my way to the hall I saw a group of Atlas kids making a hasty exit from the hall. Confused, I headed in to figure out what had happened. Inside I saw that whatever happened must've gone down at our table seeing as Glynda was over there talking to Carter and three people that I presumed were his teammates. I hadn't ever seen them before, they looked interesting to say the least. One was a guy wearing a kilt and a rogart shirt with a leather cover, he had a large claymore strapped to his back with a keen edge. He had a mess of black hair with a grey streak visible in it and a build looked like he could casually kick a door in. Another guy was wearing a set of knights armour that seemed to be condensing itself into a metal backpack, he had a long sword sheathed on his left and a kite shield hung on his right. As the helmet disassembled his blonde hair tied into a warrior braid became visible and he seemed to have a durable build. Last was a girl with dark brown hair braided down her back and was wearing dark leather armour, two daggers were seamlessly sheathed into the armour at her sides and a recurve bow was slung over her back. Her eyes looked like a green snake eye more than a human eye, snake Faunus I guess.

I walked up just as Glynda left and Carter greeted me, handing me a small box along with it.

"Hey Clara, I'm a bit late about this." He started. "I'm usually a few days late when it comes to gift giving, so here's yours." I opened up the canister and found a few small canisters attached to an iron ring, I was confused for a moment before I realised it was just like the revolver style canisters on my gauntlets. The canisters seemed reinforced and capable of storing more dust, I spent a few seconds replacing the old one for this one.

"Thanks, saves me from having to reload a canister in the midst of battle as often." I said. "Two questions, why was Glynda here and who are your teammates?"

"Some Atlas kids were being rather offensive to some Faunus and…" Carter explained.

"And offense breeds offense." The girl sighed.

"What they're trying to say is we got defensive and they picked a fight with us." The kilt guy said.

"We weren't punished since they started the altercation." The other guy said.

"So that's why they were running off." I said to myself. "Well I won't criticise you guys on that decision."

"Thanks for that." The girl said.

"As for names; Argus is the sword and shield guy from Vacuo, the man rocking the kilt over there is Liath from outside the wall, and she's Ivory from Mistral." Carter rattled off. "We're team LIAC, lilac." They all shook my hand in greeting and took a seat, I sat down too and realised my left gauntlet was missing. I looked up and saw Ivory examining it, I reached over and took it back.

"Sorry, can't help it." She said with a shrug. "I have kleptomania."

"How did you even take that off without me noticing?" I asked, more impressed than upset about her feat. She responded with a shrug as though she herself didn't know, I decided it would be a lost cause to pursue the answer.

* * *

Elith, lunchroom

* * *

I walked over to our table and found that Carter was visiting again, this time with his whole team. I walked up and introductions were made, after which Carter handed me a box.

"Here's a late present, hope you enjoy." He said. I opened up the box and folded into its dimensions was a small blue dress, I gave him a long, cold stare. In the meantime he and everyone else except his own confused team were laughing.

"Hilarious." I responded.

"Unfold it." Carter requested, I did so and four uncut chunks of dust rolled out of the dress.

"Clever, I appreciate the wit." I said, taking the chunks and sorting them into my pouches for dust.

"No problem." Carter replied, small talk went on for a time before I noticed something odd. In the wall nearby there were dents shaped like a human face on multiple points. The guy who was introduced as Liath noticed me looking over there and spoke up.

"That may have been me, got carried away earlier." He said. I was tempted to ask what had happened and how he was able to hit with that much force, but something more pertinent entered my thought process.

"Has anyone seen Erik today?" I asked. "I haven't seen him in any of our classes and he wasn't in the dorm when I woke up."

"Maybe he was hit in the back of the head by a Grimm again." Isaac suggested, most people at the table laughed at the inside joke.

"He better not have, he's got an obligation tomorrow." Ruby said.

"I think I have a guess as to where he is right now." Isaac said.

* * *

Isaac, library

* * *

There he was, sitting at one of the computers and pulling up large files and pouring through them with intense focus. I walked up behind him and read what he was reading; the files were contact lists, purchase histories, search histories, downloads, and a date was plastered next to each of them.

"What are you doing?" I asked, tapping his shoulder. He tensed up very suddenly and jerked around to face me, a look of alarm and panic etched across his face. There were bags under his eyes, seemed like he hadn't actually slept last night.

"Nothing." He said drowsily

"Erik, you're not a good liar when you're not tired." I said. "What's this all about?"

"That symbol that pulled up on my scroll, it's signifies a virus that can discover every detail of what a device has done or is doing and sends it to someone." Erik explained. "And this certain someone is a person I would rather not have all my information."

"So you're checking what files of yours were checked before you could destroy the phone." I guessed.

"Bingo, so far I've found none." Erik said.

"You destroyed it before the symbol even left the screen, of course it didn't find anything." I said. "You need to get some sleep, I'll check the remainder of the things if that eases your conscience." He said nothing for a bit, gears clearly working in his sleepy head.

"Fine, if I can trust anyone to be this meticulous it would be either you or Elith." Erik said with a sigh. "Once you're done, delete all of the files completely off the computer." I nodded my answer as Erik shambled away to our dorm.

* * *

Erik, Vale

* * *

Despite having a good rest, having weapons on me, being in a populated space, and being accompanied by a fifteen year old with a giant scythe/sniper rifle, I didn't feel safe. This should be a calm pleasant occasion, but instead I was looking over my shoulder and scanning the shadows as much as I had back when I was making my way to Beacon the first time. Red didn't seem to mind though, she was just pulling me along to whatever locale she had in mind.

"Where are we going?" I asked in futility.

"Still not telling you~" She said happily, I sighed in defeat and returned to my paranoid searching. After a while we reached a small establishment, three tables were set out front and the smell of freshly baked goods wafted out from from the building. We walked through the doors into a small, well-kept bakery of sorts. All of the people behind the desk had similar features, same hair colour and whatnot, I guessed it was family run. We walked up to the front desk, I was about to ask what kind of baked goods they sold before the lady at the counter spotted Ruby and simply walked off. She returned a minute later carrying a platter with a large number of cookies on it.

"I take it you're a regular Red?" I asked.

"What gave it away?" She said as she handed a few lien to the girl.

"Just a hunch." I said.

We took a seat outside and began eating, by eating I mean that I desperately tried to salvage a spare few from Ruby's monstrous appetite for cookies. Once they had been finished off, in about a minute and a half, we started talking again.

"So Erik, did you make your weapon?" She asked.

"No, it was a gift." I said.

"From who?" She asked.

"The only person I think ever cared about me before I came to Beacon." I said.

"If you could adjust it in any way, how would you?" She asked, I was starting to get flashbacks to Ms. Twenty questions from my train ride to Beacon.

"I'd probably improve its dust cartridge, I feel like it could be more efficient or at least easier to use." I explained. "What about you."

"Crescent Rose is perfect already, why change it?" She said. "What's your favourite colour?"

"Malachite." I answered.

"That's a colour?" She asked.

"To an extent, yeah." I said, small talk of similar calibre went on for thirty minutes. At multiple points I evaded questions about Mistral and why I was frequently checking our surroundings. I checked my scroll, **8:17**.

"We should probably head back to Beacon, we don't want anyone giving us crap for being later than we already are." I said, she agreed and we started the trip back. Unfortunately we were more delayed than expected since we had no vehicles and we'd missed the last flight to Beacon, so we had to walk the trail there.

We arrived around **8:52** and went into the dorms, I walked her to her dorm and returned to mine. I heard a beep from my vigilantiam and whirled around to face whoever was behind me. I was relieved to see team CRMS walking about forty feet behind me, I waved at them and waited for my heartbeat to calm.

"Where have you guys been?" I asked. "Haven't seen you around all week."

"Forgetting we had a timetable to stick to." Sage explained simply, a guilty expression etched on his face.

"At least you're honest." I said.

"I will admit that it was mostly my fault, I planned the trip and underestimated how long the itinerary was." Robin said sheepishly.

"Get to your dorms, if Glynda asks you were here all week." I said with a grin, they nodded their thanks and hurried off. I opened the door and entered my dorm to be greeted by a wad of paper hitting my face. I identified my assailant to be Elith, who had a notebook with a page torn from it next to her.

"What was that for?" I asked, annoyed.

"I'm getting really sick and tired of people in this friend group going missing without explanation, I don't think you guys realize that I get really worried when it happens." Elith ranted. "First Blake, then Isaac, and now you!"

"You do care!" I heard Isaac shout from the bathroom, despite ourselves we all started laughing and all tension was released.

"But seriously, Isaac explained where you were but not the why." Elith continued. "I'm sure it has to do with why you smashed your scroll, and I want to know what's wrong so I can be a supportive teammate damnit."

"Fair enough, alright I'll tell you all what I can." I said. "I don't fully understand it myself." I went on to explain the concept of the virus and how it heralded my mother's involvement in the human-White Fang agreement.

"Well, you can stop looking over your shoulders Erik." Clara said.

"Why." I asked, with my mom I could think of few reasons to calm down.

"Because you have a jack of all trades Faunus, an angst-filled teen with cloning powers, and a tinker, all of which are fully armed, at your side as friends and teammates." Clara explained. "So I think you can afford to chill out marginally." Silence passed for a while, I couldn't think of what to say.

"Mandatory team hug!" Isaac said happily, hugging me and Clara and forcing Elith to join in. The hug broke after a bit and we all sat in silence for a moment before going to bed, I think we all felt the same heightened sense of comfort and homeliness. It had been unspoken till now, but now I truly felt like we were a team of friends and that made me feel safe for the first time in a long while.

 **Author's notes**

 **I had a nice time writing this chapter, one more chapter before missions. And don't even think I'm going to skip the dance, next chapter is going to be fun to write. Feel free to leave a helpfully review.**


	26. Dance

Chapter 26

Dance

* * *

Erik, EICE dorm

* * *

I checked to make sure who was ready; Clara was ready and wearing a dark blue berry dress, Isaac was ready and wearing a brown tuxedo, and I was ready with my dark grey tuxedo. At first I was happy to hear Elith was attending, but now I was regretting her decision as we were going to be late at this rate. She had been in the bathroom for the past thirty minutes and making noises of frustration the whole time, just like when we watched a horror movie and she got really annoyed with the character's stupidity. Eventually we heard a sigh of defeat from in there and some shifting.

"Isaac, could you come help me out?" She asked.

"Why can't Clara?" Isaac asked.

"Clara wouldn't know anything about this." She replied.

"Alright." Isaac said as he opened up the door and slipped into the bathroom. Me and Clara looked between each other, she raised her eyebrows.

"Oh my, how scandalous." She said jokingly, we both laughed for a bit.

"Couldn't you have done this yourself?" We heard Isaac ask

"Maybe, but it's faster this way." She replied.

"First off, you don't even start the job from behind." Isaac explained. "You just slip it through there, pull it through, and repeat a few more times." At this point me and Clara were just looking between each other with expressions of 'should we leave?'

"Well that was faster than expected." Elith said.

"It's generally that fast." Isaac replied, the door opened and the two of them walked out. Elith was wearing a full on black tuxedo that fit her surprisingly well, she also had on black formal pants and a grey tie.

"Thanks for helping me with the tie Isaac, why is this freaking noose so hard to put on?" She said. Me and Clara heaved sighs of relief at the explanation, but then I became confused again.

"Wait, why is Elith wearing that." I asked.

"The dance is formal and I should adhere to dress code, I decided to wear a tux as a dress is a step too far." Elith explained.

"It's not the tux that confuses me, it's that you would wear something formal." I said. "I was expecting you to argue that your casual fashion sweatshirt was formal until they let you in."

"I agree with Erik, you have some other motive to wear this.." Clara said. "I think you're just wearing it to screw with Weiss."

"Yeah mostly." Elith admitted. "You know me so well." We all shared a laugh and walked out, just in time to bump into team CRMS, most of them anyways. Misty was walking alongside Robin and Sage, all of them wearing formal wear of the same crimson colour. Clara and Misty quickly signed a whole conversation while the rest of us chatted with Robin and Sage.

"Hey guys, where's Cadet." I asked.

"He's not a fan of dancing, he headed into Vale to do something." Robin explained.

"You guys going with anyone?" Sage asked.

"I'm going with Ruby, Clara's going with Yang, Isaac and Elith are just attending." I explained.

"Excuse me, I am dancing, not 'just attending'." Isaac said defensively.

"Neither of them have dates?" Sage asked. "Would've expected someone to ask them."

"People asked me, but I didn't know them at all so I said no." Isaac replied. "It's weird to go on a date with someone you hardly know, there's no familiarity or connection behind that."

"Ditto." Elith said simply.

"It's not that strange, but I get what you mean." Robin said.

"What about you guys?" Erik asked.

"Misty just likes attending parties, me and Robin are going together." Sage answered.

"Cool, I didn't realise you two were dating." Elith commented.

"We haven't been, Robin asked me to the dance and refuses to tell me whether she likes me or just doesn't like going to things like his alone." Sage explained, Robin chuckled at how confused Sage was.

* * *

Elith, courtyard

* * *

These clothes were horridly uncomfortable, but entirely worth the effort to wear. I was going to tough through them, one way or another. My thoughts were brought back to reality as our group ran into yet another pack of familiar faces, team LIAC. Liath was still wearing a kilt, but it was black and had shinier buckles so I guess it counted as formal. He also seemed to be wearing the same shirt from before, except dyed black. Ivory was wearing a black wrap dress with white lines detailing a perplexing pattern. Argus was wearing a simple black suit, looking more like he was heading to a staff meeting rather than a dance. Carter was wearing a black pinstripe suit with a red tie. We all shook hands, I kept a close eye on Ivory's hands when I shook hers, and continued on our way.

"You guys look nice." Isaac mentioned to them.

"Thanks, I think we all tried except Liath." Argus replied.

"This is proper formal wear, where I come from." Liath retorted, muttering the last part. We would've continued talking, but we came upon the entrance to the party. Yang waved us all in; complementing everyone's attire, especially Clara's, and having a field day laughing at how she knew Weiss would respond to my attire. We entered and Erik was almost immediately dragged off by a red blur I could only hope was Ruby and everyone else dispersed in calmer manners until it was just me and Isaac standing around. We both shrugged at this and wandered off to the punch bowl, the universal hotspot for avoiding social situations.

'Unfortunately' Weiss was near the punch bowl, naturally I bee lined to her. She didn't note me approaching, but looked up once I arrived. I caught a glimpse of a sad expression before it suddenly turned to shock, then horror, then confusion, then back to shock, or was it anger?

"Wha-, why, you, but, excuse?" She sputtered, I could almost imagine just seeing the message 'fatal error: tuxedo+Elith does not register' popping up in her mind. "Is that a tuxedo?"

"Correct, take a sticker." I reached into my pocket and removed a custom sticker that read 'yes, this is a tuxedo' and stuck it to her dress

"You made stickers for this?!" She asked.

"Two in a row!" I said happily, removing a 'you're damn right I paid 60 lien to make custom stickers for this joke alone' sticker and pinning it on her cheek

"Ok, stickers aside, I thought you hated all formal wear?" She asked. "Are you just wearing the wrong type just to annoy me."

"You are on a roll!" I cheer, removing a 'any lengths are worth it to get this reaction' sticker and put on her sleeve.

"How many of these damn stickers did you make?" She asked, I stuck a 'I made five of these' sticker to her hand.

"I'm not going to continue talking, I have enough stickers." Weiss groaned, this had taken so much unnecessary planning, but was also unbelievably worth it. I stuck a 'I predicted your silence too' sticker to Weiss's nose and sped off before she could yell at me, laughing the whole way.

* * *

Isaac, balcony

* * *

The loud music was getting to be a bit much, even for me. So I'd grabbed a cup of punch and walked up to the balcony and I was happy I did, the view out here was very nice. The moon was bright tonight and lit the city of Vale up under a pale glow, I felt on top of the world looking out from here. Alas, peace and quiet seemed to be in limited supply as I heard a few pairs of footsteps behind me; I turned to see Elith, Clara, Yang, Liath, and Ivory walking up.

"Doesn't seem like you to stand up here alone, what's up Isaac?" Clara asked.

"Why does everyone assume something's wrong when someone's just taking a breather?" I complained.

"To be fair, you were the one staring melodramatically over the cityscape." Yang commented.

"You have me there, but I honestly wasn't brooding." I said defensively.

"Sure you weren't." Elith jested, poking me as she walked by me and sat down on the balcony rail. Some time slipped by; Clara and Yang danced to the slightly dulled music mostly while me and Elith chatted with Liath and Ivory.

"So Liath, you lived outside the wall?" I asked. "What's it like out there."

"The laws are different, people have to learn how to fight, and we mostly hike rather than drive places." Liath said. "Though horses are an option."

"Sounds cool." Elith said. "Why'd you leave home to become a hunter instead of stick around to defend your village?"

"Because helping the world is better than helping a valley, plus we'll have a pretty kickass job description." He said, grinning a bit at the last part.

"What about you Iv-" I started, but then I noticed two things were missing. Ivory was quite suddenly not there and neither was my cup of punch, how would she even take that without me noticing?

Liath laughed a little bit, and looked around.

"Ivory get back here!" He called out.

"I'm up here." I hear her say from somewhere overhead, I looked to see her sitting in a spot of shade on the roof.

"How'd you get up there?" I ask.

"My semblance let's me shift between shadows." She explained, her voice coming from above to very suddenly coming from right behind me. I turned to see her standing in my shadow. "Here's your cup back, sorry for taking it." She went back over to Liath and they started talking, so I went and sat next to Elith.

"I wish I had a semblance like that." I told Elith.

"What even is your semblance Isaac?" She asked.

"Nothing I want to talk about right now, I'll tell you later." I assure her. A moment of silence passed as Ivory, Liath, Clara, and Yang left to return to the dance floor. Me and Elith sat in silence, as if expecting something new and interesting to spontaneously arrive.

"How about now?" Elith asked, I decided to evade the question. And my opportunity arrived in the form of the next song of the dance.

"Right now I feel like dancing instead."

"But this is a slow dance and you don't even have a partner." She said. "You don't simply dance solo on something like this." She suddenly looked taken aback at what I could only assume was shock that such a Weiss-like phrase had slipped out.

"Watch me!" I counter as I run down to the dance floor, I heard her lazily follow behind me.

* * *

Clara, dance floor

* * *

Yang was good at this, well anyone's good at this from my point of view. I kept stepping on her feet and almost falling, for a cat I sure didn't have much balance. How on remnant can I aim a sniper rifle while riding an Ursa but not aim my feet at a slow pace on flat ground? Yang didn't seem to mind, she was simply enjoying herself so I decided to put thoughts of my poor footwork aside. As the song proceeded I started to pay more attention to everyone else, not much interesting was in sight. That is except Isaac, he was dancing by himself amidst the crowd. I saw him just in time to see him dip himself with expert balance, using his leg to brace from falling and look like he was being dipped. I started laughing and circled so Yang could see it too, she also started to crack up and we stopped dancing for a moment just to enjoy Isaacs antics.

"What, you have a problem with a guy dancing with himself?" He asked jokingly.

"No, I'm honestly more impressed than confused." I replied. "That's pretty skilled pantomiming, I'm not going to judge." He grinned at that. I then noticed that Elith was leaning against the wall nearby, watching his antics with a bemused expression plastered on her face.

* * *

Isaac, dance floor

* * *

I was starting to get annoyed at how long this damn song was, but I was not quitting. Even if it was an hour long I would keep this up just to prove a point, and to simply have fun I guess. Suddenly I wasn't dancing solo, Elith had walked up to me and rapidly taken the second position of the dance.

"Don't take anything by this Isaac, I'm only doing this because you just looked stupid dancing solo like that." She said. "Plus I got really bored standing aside."

"Maybe I like looking stupid." I counter. "And just to spite you, I am going to jump to all conclusions because of this." We both chuckled a bit at that. We closed the last minute of the song dancing and headed back to the punch bowl where we found Erik sitting.

"I didn't expect to ever see Elith dance, don't you have something against stuff like that?" He asked.

"Wrong, I have an issue with being told to act, dress, or be a certain way." She said defensively. "It's about free will, not about avoiding 'proper' behaviour entirely."

"Fair enough." Erik surrendered.

"Where's Ruby?" I asked.

"She went to get some fresh air and hasn't come back." He said. "By the way, I regret to inform you that people have already taken you two dancing the wrong way."

"What do you you mean?" I asked.

* * *

Elith, punch bowl

* * *

"I overheard a few people." He paused, staring down Yang and Clara as they approached the punch bowl. "Talking about how cute you two looked."

"I swear, I'm going to strangle them" I muttered.

"Strangle us for what?" Clara asked, I answered her with a cold stare. "Guys I'm scared now."

"She's annoyed you guys said her and Isaac looked cute together." Erik explained. However, Clara looked even more scared than when my reasons were unknown. I gave a moment of silence before sighing.

"It'd be too much effort, and then I'd have to deal with the guilt of killing you." I groaned. "Curse you for being too good a person, other than your apparent habit of leaping to conclusions."

"It wasn't a conclusion though." Yang stepped in. "We simply said you guys looked cute dancing together, not that you were dating."

"... Shut up." I said, too tired to think of a creative response. I walked off and took a seat.

* * *

The dance

* * *

The dance continued as normal, more songs were played and little of interest passed aside from many people's punch cups, pocket squares, gloves, glasses, and other various loose items were discovered to be missing throughout the night. Eventually Clara managed to successfully 'apologise' to Elith and that mess was sorted out, though mostly since Elith was too tired to be properly upset. Isaac went back to dancing as did Clara and Yang, and Erik decided to simply nap till Ruby came back. Meanwhile team LIAC took a break and stood on the sidelines.

"Hey umm, Argus, you've been standing in this corner the whole time." Carter said

"And?" He asked.

"We were just wondering if you'd burst a fuse and we needed to send you back to Atlas for repairs." Ivory joked.

"Very funny, just because I've not done much doesn't mean I'm not enjoying myself." Argus replied. "I'm enjoying the camaraderie and fellowship that attending this event encourages."

"Really?" Liath asked. "Looks like you're standing here with a deadpan face." Ivorys face lit up suddenly with an idea.

"Hey Argus, there are twenty five things in this room that I've moved." Ivory said. Her reward was Argus looking at her with an expression of pure hate before storming off to look for the items. This earned a slightly disapproving look from Carter and a similar look from Liath that was ruined by him struggling to repress a grin."His OCD is too fun to mess with, I'm sorry."

And Argus did spend the remainder of the night searching for the shifted items, much to Ivorys amusement. Little did he realise that the things she'd move were actually the assorted items stuffed into her satchel. As the night came to a close Erik woke up and walked off, but Elith was left in the chair for the longest time because people were simply scared to mess with her while she slept. Eventually Isaac picked her up and carried her off at the cost of being subject to much teasing by his friends.

* * *

Isaac, dorms

* * *

She must be really out if she hasn't woken up yet, shoulder carry is definitely not the most comfortable as I know from experience. As we walked I remembered something as I looked at team CRMS, that slip from the puzzle box.

"Hey Sage!" I called out before they made their turn.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"I solved that puzzle box and found your ticket." I explained.

"Oh, let me go get your prize then." He rushed off past his teammates. I waited while the others headed off, it was silent for a bit before Elith started shifting.

"Isaac, why am I being carried." I heard her mutter.

"You fell asleep and the dance was over, should I set you down?" I asked.

"No, I still want to sleep." She said. "Just carry me more comfortably." I obliged and sat down, resting her head against my leg as I waited for Sage. After a minute he came running back with a box in hand, he handed it to me with a grin.

"Don't worry, it's not a puzzle box." Sage said. "Pop it open." I did so and inside was what looked like a small metal pyramid, it was rather plain aside from a thin line at the tip of it. I reached to mess with it but Sage slapped my hand away.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"You wouldn't want to do that unprepared." He said. "Once that caps off the triangle will start releasing a bright flash of light every fifteen seconds."

"So it's a flash bang?" I ask.

"Except reusable." Sage said with a grin. "I thought you'd like it."

"I can think of so many uses for this, thank you." I replied.

"Well then, I'll see you tomorrow." He said as he walked off.

"See you." I said, waving goodbye. I started to get up, hefting Elith into my arms so she'd be more comfortable than a shoulder carry. Once I reached our dorm I found that Erik was asleep and Clara was taking a shower. I walked off and set Elith down on her bed, and I went to sit on my bed to wait for Clara to leave the bathroom.

 **Authors note's**

 **This one was long, and boy did I have a fun time writing it. I hope you guys enjoyed this as much as I did. As for those of you who are confused by the poll I set up, I'll tell you that the start of the results can be seen in this chapter. As always, please leave a review and make sure it's constructive.**


	27. First mission

Chapter 27

First mission

* * *

Erik, mission boards

* * *

I knew hunters took a lot of jobs in a lot of places, but the number of options laid out in front of me was surprising. With so many available missions how was I supposed to pick the right one, I stood considering my options as my teammates searched around.

"You know, there's not a right choice." I heard Ozpin's voice sound from behind me. "You're going to have a hard time trying to find a 'perfect option'." I turned to face him, sometimes I felt like Ozpin's semblance was to read minds since he always seemed to say what you were thinking.

"I'm just a bit overwhelmed with the options." I said.

"Then don't think about which ones you want to do, just decide what you don't want to do." Ozpin suggested simply.

"Hey Erik, I found something!" I heard Elith call. I waved my goodbye to Ozpin and walked over to Elith.

"What is it?" I asked.

"You know how I have training in sleuthing?" Elith asked. "I found something where that'll come in handy." She pointed out one of the boards.

 **Investigation. Medium Grimm activity. Carvail, located in southern Sanus Mission start: ASAP.**

"Let me round up the others and we'll put it to a vote." I decided. However, I didn't have to search for the others, they seemed to have noticed that we'd stopped at this spot and had come to investigate.

"What's up?" Isaac asked.

"What do you guys think of this mission?" I asked. "Team vote?" Thumbs up from Elith, and Isaac and thumbs down from Clara. I selected the mission and typed in our team name, directions telling us to got to bullhead site 8 were pulled up on the screen. So we headed off and prepared for anything.

* * *

Elith, bullhead site 8

* * *

When we reached the bullhead we were sent to, a slew of loud things happened suddenly. Namely, an exclamation of surprise from Clara, an exclamation of surprise from who I guessed to be the hunter we were going to shadow, and a nearby bullhead taking off with a really loud noise. The hunter's attire was interesting to say the least, he wore a black tricorn hat which his short dirty blonde hair stucI out the back of. He also wore dark brown leather military trench coat, the sleeves of which went slightly over his hands and their fingerless gloves. His pants were grey and I couldn't tell if they were leather or sweatpants, and he wore some simple combat boots. His 'weapons' were really the odd part about his attire, he had two kite shields strapped to his back and nothing else.

"Dusty, is that you!" Clara said happily running in to hug the guy.

"Hey Clara, how's Beacon been treating you?" He said. "Is this your team, also what's with the white Grimm?"

"I've been doing well and yes." Clara said. "This is our leader Erik, that's Isaac, that's Elith, and this is the anomaly known as Dakota."

"Well, hello." He said, shaking our hands. "I'm Dusty, the hunter you'll be shadowing."

"Hello, how do you and Clara know each other?" I asked.

"Oh, I'm an old friend from when she lived in Vacuo." He explained.

"He'd drop by the orphanage every once in awhile and help out, he's the one who recommended Beacon when I told him I wanted to be a huntress." Clara added.

"Any friend of Clara's is a friend of mine." Isaac said. "Cheesy lines aside, do we get a mission briefing?"

"Yes, on the way there." He said as he hopped into the bullhead.

Isaac, bullhead

Five minutes after launch, the ride smoothed out and Dusty turned to us and began our brief.

"Alright, so I'm no Oobleck, but I'll be giving you a history lesson first." Dusty said. "Carvail is not a single town, its three towns that made an alliance and eventually merged."

"Do the towns have any distinguishing features?" Elith asked.

"Well the towns don't have much in the way of differences, but the demographics distinguish them I suppose." Dusty said. "Ones mostly Faunus, ones mostly human, and the third is mixed as it was created post alliance to serve as a symbol of coexistence."

"What about the landscape." Clara asked.

"As with most of Vale, it's mostly forests aside from the farmlands." Dusty said. "What is unique is how that the towns form a triangle around a cluster of mountains, the roads almost make it look like it's a symbol etched into the land."

"Alright, any other history before the actual mission?" I asked, eager to get back on track.

"They've developed laws and customs based around equal treatment mostly, though they do have other customs covering some vague things." Dusty explained. "I doubt any of you would break them even without about knowing about them, seeing as the rules may as well be summed up as 'don't be an asshole'." We all laughed a bit at that.

"Alright, so what happened that requires a hunter to be dispatched?" Erik asked.

"Something suspicious happened, we got a transmission from the town and whoever sent it never responded when we called back." Dusty replied. "The CCTS towers signals are very weak out here, so whoever sent the message must have gone through a lot of effort to set up a signal booster."

"What was the message?" I asked.

"I'm getting to that; between the concerning nature of the message and how no one from the town has made attempts to respond to us, we've decided the message to be worth investigating." Dusty continued. "Since the town resumed to have no signal shortly after the message I personally assume that something bad happened to the person and their machine." Dusty then procured a scroll and pulled up an audio file and pressed play.

 _"Hello? Is his thing working, I may have made some er*static*. Okay I think it's working now, my name is Pewter and I'm sending this message from Carvail. I'm concerned about some ongoing events here, though the concerning part wouldn't be immediately obvious. Grimm attacks are getting more and more common here and*static*. DAMN THESE CHEAP PARTS! Oh, it's back on. Where was I, oh yes the Grimm. I investigated one of the attack sites and I found something, one of the bodies had*static* and I haven't felt safe since. So I need a hunter dispatched, someone who can make heads or tails of what's going on."_

"And that's when it cut off, clearly some important information was lost towards the end there." Dusty concluded. "So our mission details are as follows; is to look into these Grimm attacks, find this man if he's alive, and in general figure what this is all about."

"Seems simple enough." Elith said sarcastically.

"We should pass over Carvail in a few hours." Dusty said.

* * *

Clara, ?

* * *

I opened my eyes, I was in my room back at the orphanage. Little adorned the walls, but there were stacks of books, newspapers, and other such things scattered around. I looked around and noticed a figure in my doorframe, the light wasn't enough to see who it was. But I knew who it was, I didn't know anyone else who would insist on wearing a trench coat in the heat of the desert.

"Hey Dusty." I said.

"Sorry, did I wake you?" He replied.

"No, what's up?" I asked.

"I just got back from doing a trade in Vale." Dusty said casually

"What kind of trade?" I asked.

"I turned in some cat Faunus's application to Beacon, and all I got was this lousy slip of paper." He said sarcastically. "You can have it if you want." He tossed down a piece of paper that I read to be acceptance papers to Beacon.

"Thanks." I replied, at a loss for how to respond.

"Clara, wake up." Dusty said. "We're about to pass over Carvail." I suddenly jerked awake in my seat on the bullhead, Dusty was in front of me.

I got out of my seat and moved to the window, we were still high up. However, there was now a break in the infinite forests, a cluster of mountains became visible in the distance. As we went higher I saw what Dusty had meant earlier, that between the roads, mountains, and towns, it looked like a big symbol. It looked like three circles connected by a circle weaving through them and a cluster of hectic strokes in the center of it all. It was actually quite pretty, but the eagle eye view didn't last very long. The bullhead lowered until it was hovering over a section of one of the road, I saw Dusty walk up and talk to our pilot and come back.

"Alright kids, this is where we get off." He said, promptly jumping out of the bullhead and onto the road. We swiftly followed suit, grabbing our bags and leaping out. My landing was rougher than everyone else's since I almost fell over from landing with Dakota in my arms. "We're walking from here on out."

* * *

Erik, Carvail main

* * *

After a good thirty minute hike we finally reached a walled of area with a gate, a single armed man stood at the gate.

"Hail travelers, what business do you have here?" The guard posted at the gate asked.

"Official Huntsman business, do you need credentials?" Dusty asked.

"No sir, come in." They opened the gate and let us in, this place immediately felt different than anywhere they'd ever been before. It was small for one, only seven buildings stood out and the rest seemed to be residential. Faunus and humans were wandering about, some of them looked curiously at us as we passed. I noted that most of these stares were directed towards Dakota, no surprise though.

"Welcome to Carvail main, the town that was built post-alliance." Dusty said.

"Where are we staying?" I asked. "It's getting dark."

"Follow me, if my map is right, then there's an inn we can stay at over here." Dusty said.

"An inn?" Elith asked.

"It's like a hotel." He elaborated, after a little bit we reached one of the prominent buildings with a sign reading 'inn' over its door. We walked inside and were immediately greeted by a kind looking lady with glasses and red hair at the front desk.

"Hello, what can I help you with?" She asked.

"Can we have two conjoined rooms and one single?" Dusty asked.

"We have rooms like that available, it will be 60 lien a night all in all." She said. Dusty pulled out a few lien from one of his pockets and set it down on the table.

"Well stay four nights and I'll pay if we overstay." He said.

"Ok, here are the keys and your rooms will be the last ones in the hall, second floor." She said, handing him the keys.

We walked to the assigned location, Dusty turned to us and handed us each a key..

"Girls take the rooms to my left, guys take the ones on my right." He said. "And if anyone gets night terrors, this is my room." We all nodded in response and entered our rooms, me and Isaac entered our rooms. The room was simple; one bed, a desk, a painting of a landscape, and a bathroom that connected to Isaac's room. I washed up a little bit in the bathroom and returned to my room and flopped down onto the bed, it took a while to fall asleep.

 **Author's notes**

 **MysTeRY! And here we are at my first complete diversion from the main storyline of the show, it's going to be interesting to see where this goes. I bet none of you'll figure it out, perhaps you could try being detectives yourselves as this goes on and try to solve it in the reviews?**


	28. Clues

Chapter 28

Clues

* * *

Clara, inn

* * *

I sat in the hallway waiting for everyone to wake up, I didn't want to walk off unaccompanied in unfamiliar territory. Dakota was resting his head on my lap as we waited, looking up at me with his cold blue eyes.

"Hello, you're from the group that came in last night yes?" I heard someone say to my left, I turned to see the innkeeper walking up to me.

"Yeah, I'm waiting for the others to wake up." I said, she nodded in understanding. Her eyes suddenly lit on Dakota and an expression of alarm and confusion flashed on her face.

"What is that?" She said. "And why isn't it attacking?"

"It's my semblance, I'm able to tame Grimm." I explained, I saw a flicker of something go across her face on me saying that. "I can't really explain why this one's like this myself."

"Interesting." She said. "Might I ask why such a large group of hunters are coming through?"

"For a mission, not sure if I can talk about it." I replied. "Sorry."

"No problem." She got up and walked away, just as Dusty opened his door and walked out.

"Wake up your team Clara, we've got a lot to do." He said. After everyone was awoken, we headed out. There was a sign on the inside of the door I hadn't noticed before, it read 'out'.

* * *

Isaac, Tavern

* * *

"Are you sure we should be here Dusty?" I asked, looking at the large array of spirits on the wall.

"You don't have to buy drinks, these places are more like restaurants with a large bar." Dusty said. "Just order some food." We did as he said and got some food, Dusty covered our bills and we ate.

"So what are we doing today?" Erik asked as he finished his meal.

"Asking around about the Grimm attacks and investigating the sites if possible." He said simply before taking the last bite of his food.

"Okay, let's start then." Elith said.

"Alright, I'll ask around with Elith and the rest of you operate together." Dusty said. With that our group split and we headed outside. The next hour was spent searching around for people to talk to, everyone was cooperative and helpful but no one would properly answer inquiries about the Grimm attacks. Some people said they'd not noticed an increase, others said that they weren't sure, no one seemed to know about the caller either. Eventually one man seemed to know something, he walked up to us towards the end of the hour.

"You three have been asking around about Grimm attacks and CCTS signals right?" He asked.

"Yeah." Clara said."

"Well, I don't know much about the Grimm attacks other than that they've worsened." He said. "What I do know about is where someone would've gotten parts to boost the CTTS signals."

"Where?" Erik said, visibly excited at the new lead.

"There's a shop at Carvail Fauna that sells odd parts and scraps, whoever made the booster probably got the parts there." The man said. "Hope I helped."

"Thank you for the assistance." I said.

"Alright, let's find Dusty." Erik said, perfectly timed as Dusty and Elith approached us.

"We've got a lead." Dusty and Erik said simultaneously. "What is it?"

* * *

Elith, road to the Carvail Fauna.

* * *

I wasn't going to complain that both places we needed to check were on the same route, apparently one of the attacks had happened on this path a little over two miles from Carvail Fauna. I cautiously swept my eyes along the path and the tree line for dangers and any signs of the attack site.

"We have to be close by at this point, we've been walking a good hour now." Isaac complained.

"If I read this map right, we're close." Dusty said.

"Found something!" Erik called, he was a little ways ahead and was pointing into a clearing. We ran up to find that parts of the ground in the clearing were torn and some smaller trees were cut up, looks like a fight had gone down.

"Alright, look around and try not to move anything before taking a picture of it." I said, reciting one of my teachers golden rules of sleuthing. I instantly went to examining the damaged tree line, most of it seemed like claw marks except a few a grazes and splintered section I accredited to gunfire. I found my proof of the gunfire theory in a small bullet hole in one tree with no light shining through it. As I set to work removing the bullet, I heard loud cracking in front of me. I sighed and rolled to my left just as four Ursa broke through the trees.

* * *

Erik, Isaac, Clara, Elith, clearing

* * *

The four Ursa halted at the center of the clearing and paced, examining their foes with their crimson eyes. One seemed very old due to the size of its spikes, the next two had shorter spikes, and the last had no spikes but was still quite large. Everyone drew their weapons and waited for the Grimm to strike first, the standoff held up unusually long before the eldest Grimm lashed out at Dusty. Dusty simply grinned and held up his shields; he caught the attack, but instead of holding his ground against it he flowed with the blow and redirected the beast into a tree next to him. Erik glanced at the other three, quickly gauged the situation, and made a plan.

"SpellBlade- frostbite!" Erik shouted, Elith quickly removed ice dust from her pouch and started weaving it through the air around her. Once ready, she released an icy gale at one of the mid aged Grimm, freezing it partially. Erik rushed forward, ducking under a swipe from the youngest Ursa, and bashed the icy limbs as hard as he could with his buckler. The limbs shattered, killing the monster and sending a spray of cold blood everywhere. Now the Grimm took their turn, the remaining mid aged one pounced at Eriks exposed back. It connected and the beast pinned him to the ground, it reared to slash but was denied in the form of Clara punching it with her gauntlet. A blast wind sent it between Isaac and Elith, they both got ready to take it out. The eldest Ursa Got up and prowled around Dusty, looking for a weakness in his defence.

"Technomancy- blood circle!" Erik called. Isaac and Elith rushed the monster between them and began circling it quickly. It looked between them and chose to lash out at Isaac, to which Elith responded by slashing its exposed sides and caused it to rear back and strike at her. Isaac responded as Elith had and slashed at it as well, they kept this game of focus up until the beast died. The youngest Grimm lashed out at Clara, she dodged aside but this seemed to be expected. It's claws batted her aside and it went to continue the assault. The eldest took another, more careful, slash at Dusty. Dusty chose not to block this time and instead sidestepped the blow, the Grimm snarled in response.

"SteelBird- blitz." Erik called, he and Isaac leaped into action. Erik jumped onto the rear of the eldest Ursa and drove Homicida into its back, Isaac ran and jumped onto and off of Eriks back to get extra height on his leap onto the Grimm. He caught his Knixes near the neck of the beast, his weight throwing it off balance and giving Erik the leverage needed to pull the creature over. Dusty saw his chance and transformed one of his shields, the kite shield wrapped around his arm into a gauntlet forming into a point. He jabbed out a the stomach of the Grimm and drove the blade deep, the Grimm began to dissipate as he pulled he gauntlet out. He then turned to where Clara was tussling with the last Ursa, he held out his hands and used his semblance. Many transparent chains sprouted suddenly across the young Grimm and restrained it.

"Clara, use your semblance." Dusty shouted.

* * *

Clara, clearing

* * *

I held out my hand to the frozen Grimm and channeled my aura through my hands, only to meet an unusual resistance. I'd had difficulty taming Grimm before, but that was simply because they were stronger and took more aura to tame. This resistance was as though it was actively preventing my aura from entering, I kept up my efforts though. Eventually the resistance seemed to fade and its crimson eyes turned a cool blue, like normal.

"Why'd that take so long?" Erik asked.

"I- I don't know." I said panting a little from the effort. "It was like it was blocking my aura somehow."

"Weird, maybe you're losing your touch?" Elith said sarcastically

"Whatever the reason, we have a ride to Carvail Fauna now." Erik said. I climbed onto the Ursa as Dusty's chains dissipated as he stopped focusing on them. I laid down on the Ursa as I waited for the feeling of the others mounting it, once it felt like everyone was on I willed the beast to make haste to the town.

* * *

Erik, Carvail Fauna

* * *

It didn't take long for Clara's Ursa to haul us the remaining distance, we reached the gate to the town in no time. Two guards stood outside it and took up defensive stances as soon as they saw us.

"Don't shoot!" Clara shouted. "It's not dangerous, my semblance is keeping it under control."

"If you say so, leave it out here." The other guard said suspiciously.

"Okay, I understand." Clara replied, the Ursa sat down and we all dismounted. We entered the village and immediately began searching around for the scrap shop. There were a lot of Faunus walking around, pretty much everyone here seemed to be Faunus actually. I spotted a building nearby with a sign that read 'Pale's scraps'.

"I think I found the place." I said. We headed into the building and were greeted by a dog eared man with brown hair and green eyes. The room was filled with assorted parts and scraps, some rougher and less complete than others. I saw Isaac casually grab a few parts and put them into one of the bags the store provided.

"What can I do for you all?" The man asked.

"We were wondering, has anyone come in and purchased parts for a CCTS signal booster?" Dusty asked.

"Parts like, antennae, radio parts, dishes, and the like." Isaac asked.

"There are a lot of tinkerers in town, I have a bit of difficulty recalling if any of them bought things of that sort." He said, putting on a face of concentration.

"Do you have a record of purchases?" Dusty asked.

"Somewhere around here, I'll see if I can find it." He replied, the man starting searching around his counter and eventually found a leather bound journal. "Okay, two weeks ago a 'Pewter Kalles' purchased materials that fit your parameters."

"Thank you." Dusty said.

"Might I ask why you're asking about this matter?" The man asked.

"We're running an investigation, something that involved Pewter." Dusty said.

"Ah, well I wish you luck on figuring things out." The dog Faunus said. With that we exited, Isaac hefted his bag of parts and set down some lien on the counter.

"Any extra is for being so helpful." Isaac said. We left the town to find Clara's Ursa sitting as we left it, but only one guard.

"What happened to your friend?" Dusty asked.

"He went to check on something, weird noise." The guard said.

"Alright, well tell him we thank the two of you for keeping an eye on our Grimm." Dusty said. We all mounted and the Ursa began to book it to Carvail main.

* * *

Elith, Carvail main

* * *

We walked into the inn to regroup, Dusty brought us into his room and set up a board on his bed.

"Alright, so let's organise our thoughts." He said. "What do we know about Pewter?"

"He got parts to boost the signal two weeks ago, which means he must've been working alone if it took him so long to build it." I said.

"So that begs another question, why didn't he get help if there allegedly a lot of tinkerers?" Isaac asked.

"He said he didn't feel safe in the message, maybe paranoia kept him from cooperation." Erik said.

"Okay, what about the Grimm attacks?" Dusty asked. "What'd you all find before those Grimm ruined the scene ruined?"

"I found where bullets had grazed trees and I even found a bullet stuck in a trunk, whoever was attacked was armed to defend himself." I added.

"Alright, so next order of business is to figure out where Pewter lives." Dusty said, pinning a piece of paper reading 'Pewter' in the center of the board. "Secondary objective is to find more attack sites, see if we can figure out what it was Pewter found." He pinned another paper that read 'attack site #1' and wrote 'the victim was armed' on it.

"Okay." Erik said. "So what ne-" He never finished the sentence as knocking suddenly sounded on our door.

 **Author's notes**

 **It's only a small dip into the mystery, but don't worry about the rest of it being so slowly paced. Please leave a review and share your thoughts.**


	29. Officials

Chapter 29

Officials

Erik, Isaac, Clara, Elith, Dusty's room

They all turned to face the door and looked between each other for a moment, Dusty eventually moved and opened the door. Behind the door was a rather tall man wearing heavy armour with a greatsword strapped to his back. He had brown eyes and short greying hair, and a few faded scars were on his face. Dusty immediately stepped back a bit and kept his hand near his shields, the hunters-in-training took similar preparations.

"Hold, I'm not any harm to you outsiders." The man said. "The names Char, I'm captain of the guard here in Carvail and a member of the city's council."

"Sorry about the welcome sir, can never be too careful." Dusty said.

"It's no issue, I have enough scars to understand the need for caution." Char said.

"So, I was informed you were all on an investigation here and I wanted to know what it was so I could provide assistance."

"Great, we do have a few questions that we need help answering." Elith said.

"Do you know where a man by the name of Pewter is?" Isaac asked.

"Old Pewter?" Char asked. "He was a member of the guard, haven't seen him as of late."

"Where do you think he may be." Dusty asked.

"He lived outside of town, I fear his overconfidence has betrayed him in the form of Grimm." Char said. "I can lead you to his place, maybe you Hunters will have a good chance of reaching his house."

"Why would it be hard?" Erik asked.

"I said he was overconfident not stupid, he didn't just live in a log house with an open door." Char joked. "His house is surrounded by hidden traps of his own make, and he was very good at making traps."

Erik, Pewter's household

When Char had said that Pewter lived outside town, I thought he meant a good quarter mile. What outside of town meant to this guy was two and a half miles out on the road and another half mile down another path. Why did Char have to be so unnerved about riding Clara's Ursa, it beat walking to ride that thing. Pewter was either a loner to a flaw or some grade A badass to have the gall to be out this far alone. And Char was not wrong about the traps being hidden, I could only spot one or two defensive measures if I looked closely.

"Now I didn't know Pewter too well, so I'll preface that I have no idea where to start looking for the safe path." Char said.

"Don't worry, between me and Elith we can probably spot and disarm a path." Isaac said. We all split up to circle the house to check for any signs of life in the house, I went around the back. What I saw there did not bode well for our friend Pewter, not well at all. At the back I saw a beeline of various triggered traps leading up to a broken hole in the side of the house. Looks like Grimm had sacrificed a few of themselves in order to reach the house, a surprisingly smart move on their part.

"Hey guys, I think I found the easy way in." I called.

"What is it?" Isaac said as he ran up to me. "Oh dear."

Clara, Pewter's household

We held a match of rock, paper, scissors to determine which of us would walk up the path first. I lost and begrudgingly trudged up to the path, I got about halfway up before I stepped on some dirt that made a neat little clicking noise, I looked up to see a log swinging quickly down at me. I froze up because I didn't want to dodge into another trap trigger, and my aura could tank this shot so I wasn't too concerned.

"Well shi-" I muttered before the log slammed into my chest and sent me flying backwards.

"You ok Clara?" Dusty called.

"Fine as sand." I called back, I pulled myself up and made it the rest of the way with no issue. The others followed suit and we all entered together, the sight was not pretty. In the center of the room was the corpse of Pewter with a sword in his hand. Pewter did not seem to have died from Grimm though, the sword in his hands was also being gripped by his chest.

"Oh, this is, is not what I expected." I heard Char say, Elith was the only one not frozen in shock. Elith quickly went about the business of photographing the contents of the room, unfazed by what was in here..

"Why would he have killed himself?" Char asked. "Looks to me like he won the fight." Gesturing at how Pewter only had a spare few nicks on him from the fight.

"That's what I hope to find out." Dusty said.

While Elith documented the room I trailed behind her and searched around, specifically for the signal booster. Eventually I found it, pieces of it. What I'd initially marked off as being scrap I realised was all the pieces for a signal boost jury rigged together, or at least it had been. It now had three large gashes in it, rendering it unusable.

"Found the signal boost." I called, Isaac came over and investigated it.

"Looks like it was hardly holding together before it was hit, but why was it hit in the first place?" Isaac said.

"Probably a stray Grimm slash." I pitched in.

"Yeah, I can understand one stray attack hitting this." Elith said as she came up behind us. "But I count three separate strikes."

"It's odd." Isaac concluded. "Anyone else find anything?"

"Just some books and broken furniture." Dusty said.

"What I'm wondering is why the Grimm attacked in the first place." Char said. "Pewter never struck me as the type to draw in Grimm, he was pretty chipper for a loner."

"Seeing as he seems to have killed himself, I think you may have to rethink what you know about Pewter."

Elith, road to Carvail

We'd searched around Pewter house for a good hour, but it was to no avail. Just some scratched up furniture, books, and a diary that had nothing relevant to the investigation in it. Even Pewters corpse had been useless, a few non lethal Grimm slashes and the obvious wound from his own sword were evident on his body. I was starting to think this was all nothing but a rash of particularly bad Grimm attacks. Despite that I couldn't help but feel that there was something else happening, Pewters message wasn't about Grimm attacks. We hadn't gotten all of the message, but what we did have didn't say that much about the Grimm. He'd said something about finding something on one of the bodies, and he'd also said that the concerning part of all this wasn't immediately obvious. I groaned, I'd helped my sleuthing teacher solve a convoluted murder of some rich twat in Atlas involving hired assassins and business rivalries, and that case was easier than this.

"You holding up Elith?" Isaac asked.

"I'm doing fine, this case is just getting more confusing." Elith said. "Now we have to figure out why Grimm attacks are increasing, what Pewter found on one of the bodies, why Pewter killed himself, and why it made him feel unsafe."

"Elith breath, if you get more worked up over this you're going to have a heart attack." Isaac said. "Try to focus on something else for a second." I took a deep breath, but I still couldn't stop focusing on the questions buzzing in my head. I tried to fixate on some other question that someone here could answer, it took a moment before I finally thought of something.

"Hey Char, why do these paths take such a long detour around the mountains?" I asked. "Wouldn't it be more efficient to have made the roads closer to them if not through them?"

"You would not want to be anywhere near those mountains." Char said simply. "It's a death trap up there, lots of Grimm."

"Why haven't hunters come and cleared it out yet?" I asked.

"We have, and they're either dead or taking their sweet time clearing it." Char said. "We stopped trying after we lost a whole team of hunters to that mountain, so we eventually decided to go around it instead." At least I was able to answer one of my questions, albeit with an unpleasant answer.

Isaac, Carvail main

We travelled without incident until we finally reached the walls of Carvail main, Clara's Ursa sitting nearby with two guards watching it closely. The gate opened for us and we started moving for the inn before Char stopped us.

"Hold on, I think we'd better speak with the council about this." Char said.

"What is the council?" I asked. "You didn't really explain that earlier."

"The leaders of our towns, three humans and three Faunus that are in charge of managing the day to day operations." Char explained. "As I said before, I fill one of these positions." By the time we'd finished discussing this we'd arrived at the largest building in the town, he opened the doors and we arrived in a mostly empty waiting room with three doors. He led us through the center door into a simple room adorned with a long table and six chairs. Four of these chairs were occupied and the two humans and two Faunus that occupied them looked up from their conversations to look at us. One of the humans wore green robes and the Spider eyed Faunus next to him wore matching robes, the other human and Deer horned Faunus had a similar situation with yellow robes,

"Hey, where's Coal?" Char asked, pointing at one of the empty seats.

"He went to get food." The deer Faunus said. "Who are these people with you?"

"These are the hunters that have been asking around about Pewter and CCTS signals." Char said.

"I guessed as much, seeing as the Grimm tamer is with them." The spider Faunus said.

"You mean me?" Clara said.

"No, they mean the other person who has a white Beowolf and an Ursa under her control." Elith said.

"We heard reports about a cat Faunus and her,,,, pets." The yellow robed human said.

"Moving on from that, tell us what your investigation has brought forth so far." The green robed human said.

"We found that Pewter killed himself after a Grimm attack and the signal booster he built was destroyed in the midst of the attack." Char explained. "I don't know what they know past that."

"And we aren't at liberty to say, I want to wait until I have a backed theory before I make a statement." Dusty said.

"Seems like a simple case of Grimm attacks." The spider Faunus said.

"I have a hunch to the contrary, but I won't deny that yours does seem more likely." Dusty said. "But we're going to verify whether that is what is going on before we leave town." With that we left the courtroom, waving goodbye to Char.

Elith, inn

I sat down on my bed, I'd been trying to fall asleep for a few hours now and it still wasn't happening. This whole case and was occupying to much of my bought process, I get to worked up over mysteries. I flopped back down and closed my eyes, finally weariness seemed to outweigh my stress and I slipped into sleep. It was dreamless for a while, just calm and thoughtless, before I woke up again all of a sudden. It took me a moment to try and figure out what had woken me, I eventually noticed the creaking noise outside my room. I opened my door and looked out to see that Clara's door was slightly ajar and a breeze was wobbling it back and forth. I poked my head in just in case she'd left it open for the breeze or something, but I didn't see her or Dakota in the room.

"I really hope she went for a walk." I muttered to myself, I went over to knock on Dusty's door and tell him about Clara's absence.

Clara, ?

My eyelids felt heavy, it was difficult to open them. For that matter, everything felt heavy. My head started to throb painfully as I woke up more and more. I felt like I was being carried, this was odd enough for me to try and open my eyes. With lots of effort I managed to pry my eyes open and what I saw was concerning and alarming to say the least. I was being carried between two people, one of which was clearly a Faunus due to his boar tusks, wearing Grimm masks. I made an attempt to say something along the lines of 'who are you?' or 'put me down or I'll kill you.', but it came out as an incoherent groan.

"She's awake." The Faunus said. "I thought the dose was enough to get us there."

"I must have miscalculated, or maybe I accidentally swapped her dose with her Beowolf's seeing as it's still asleep." The other one said. "I don't have any more on me so just knock her out the old fashioned way." Before I had any chance to register what that meant I was struck by the fist of the Faunus and consciousness fled.

 **Author's notes**

 **Hint: something happened that made things occur. Please leave a review.**


	30. Taken

Chapter 30

Taken

* * *

Clara, ?

* * *

The first thing I felt on waking up was the cold, then the roughness of the stone floor I was on, then I could smell the dampness, and last but not least, the throbbing pain of a head injury. I didn't feel quite as lethargic as before so I managed to lift myself up quickly, I looked about to see that I was definitely in a cave. The room was unadorned aside from its entrance, aside from a makeshift grated door. Now that I was done checking the room I moved to the next thing, checking myself. I was wearing the same clothes I'd fallen asleep in, at least no one had changed me while I slept. I discovered a needle mark in my arm, I guess that's how they knocked me out. Unfortunately none of my equipment was on me, not that I was really expecting anything different. I concluded that my only option was to wait, so I sat down and waited for something to happen. Eventually I heard footsteps coming, heavy footsteps and whoever was coming was walking with no urgency. What turned the corner and came into my view through the grated door was a tall person wearing a large Grimm mask that covered all their face. They wore large grey robes that made it impossible to identify gender or race, the only exposed part of them were their hands which did not help much. They sat down in front of my door without saying anything, just staring with the mask giving the illusion of not blinking. I decided to play this game and sat down on my side of the door and stared right back, unfortunately I doubted my power of intimidation while wearing blue pajamas.

This silence continued for a good hour from what I could gauge, I was starting to get hungry.

"Hmm, you mimic my patience as well." They said slowly, their neutral tone and voice adding to their anonymous nature. "What else do you steal from me?"

"I'm going to level with you, I have no idea what you're talking about." I reply simply.

"How come one gifted such as yourself would come to this valley in particular if you don't have any knowledge of me?" They asked.

"I came here over an investigation, I have no clue who you are." I insisted.

"Hmm, regardless of why you are here you remain a curiosity to me." They said.

"And why is that?" I ask, trying not to let how freaked out I was edge into my voice.

"Your ability to bend Grimm to your will, and particularly the oddity of your white Beowolf." They replied simply. "The curious part isn't how you do it though, it's how much you comprehend what you're doing."

"That's unnecessarily vague." I said, frustration welling up alongside my confusion and panic. The person stood up slowly and began to move away, but before they left my view they turned to face me with that unblinking mask.

"Don't bother concealing your emotions, I'm too good at reading them for your attempts to matter." They said. "Food should be brought to you soon." They left my view completely and I returned to sitting quietly in the unlit cave trying to think of ways to get out.

* * *

Elith, Carvail main

* * *

"Clara!" I shouted out, she hadn't come back from her walk as Dusty thought she would. So as soon as we found her room was empty in the morning we'd split up to search for her. I swear, now I was the only person on the team who hadn't mysteriously disappeared yet. I suddenly spotted a familiar face in the crowd, it was Char talking to an armoured Faunus with a lion tail flicking behind it.

"Hey Char, have you seen Clara?" I asked him.

"No, why do you ask?" He replied.

"I didn't find her in her room last night and she still wasn't there this morning, so it seems like something's happened." I said.

"Alright, we'll help you look." Char said. "This is Coal, captain of the guard."

"I thought you were the captain of the guard?" I replied.

"Yeah, as part of enforcing the equality measures of the town we keep a Faunus and a human on each council position." Coal pitched in. "It helps maintain a perfect balance and doubles to halve the paperwork per council member."

"Introductions aside, we'll see what we can do." Char assured me.

After around an hour of searching we all met back up at the Tavern, nobody had Clara with them.

"Great, now we have to cases to solve." I muttered upon noting this.

"I couldn't find her Ursa, she may have gone for a ride." Erik said. "But the current guard said he never saw her go or return."

"Me and Isaac went a little ways down each road and didn't come across anyone." Dusty said. "This is really bad."

"I can only think of a few explanations, all of them seem unlikely." I said. "She could've been on her walk and outnumbered by bandits or Grimm, she could've been kidnapped in this secure town with no one seeing it happen, or she decided to go all the way to another town to investigate something."

"It's worth at least investigating these possibilities." Dusty said. "Especially if option one or two is real."

* * *

Clara, ?

* * *

Whoever that person was did not have a good idea of what the word soon generally means, to them it seemed to mean an hour. Between my hunger and impatience I was having an issue quelling my panic and fear, calling Grimm with negativity while unarmed would not help my situation. I sat down and decided to try to think, where was I and who were my captors? They wore Grimm masks and I only knew of the White Fang wearing those, but why would the white fang have any business in this town where Faunus and humans were getting along? Maybe they were another group who wore them as their heraldry, but that seemed less likely. Finally another person wearing a Grimm mask holding a torch came along and slid a wooden plate under my door, I noted that they didn't have any visible Faunus features. They started walking away, but I decided to try to learn something from them.

"Hold on." I said, they stopped moving and turned to face me. "Who are you people and why am I being held here, are you White Fang?"

"Don't compare us to the White Fang, these masks mean something to us." They said. "As for your captivity, you are a mimicry of our leader and a threat to our goal."

"What do you mean a mimicry, and you didn't answer my first question!" I said, frustration cracking my voice finally.

"You ask too many questions false one, eat your meal and wait for judgement." With that they left and for the third time today I was left alone and confused. I looked down at what they'd brought me to eat, I was honestly surprised by what had been brought.

"I thought this was a cave, not a fancy restaurant." I muttered to myself before picking up the steak and biting into it.

* * *

Erik, road to Carvail Manus

* * *

Me, Elith, and Char had opted to make the trip to Carvail Manus, the human town of Carvail. Isaac, Dusty, and Coal went to Carvail Fauna to see if Clara had gone there. We'd searched Clara's room and found little evidence of intrusion or struggle, so unless we couldn't find her in either town then it wasn't a kidnapping. A kidnapping wouldn't even make sense anyways, why would bandits or other ill willed people risk entry into a guarded town simply to kidnap one girl?

"There are so many tracks, its difficult to tell what's been here recently." Elith suddenly groaned in frustration. "All I can tell is that no Grimm have come through this road recently."

"How would you even be able to tell if Clara's footprints were among the others if you could differentiate the traffic?" I questioned her. "So you wouldn't gain ground either way."

"Yes I would, and the reason why will sound creepy."

"What's the reason." I asked.

"I've picked up a habit of memorising the size and tread pattern of the shoes of people I care about." Elith said. "A practice I got when certain people in my life, who will not be named, kept disappearing with no damn warning." I somehow got the feeling that the last part was directed at me, I just couldn't put my finger on how I got the impression though. We wound up walking the remainder of the path with no significant findings related to Clara, we didn't give up though. Carvail Manus's walls came into view and the two guards stationed at its gate suddenly came to attention upon seeing Char.

"Hello sir, what brings you here so early today?" One of the guards asked.

"Looking for someone, have you seen a cat Faunus come through here with a white Beowolf following her?" Char asked.

"No sir, you three are the first souls we've seen come down this road today." The second guard answered. Char turned to us and shrugged, he looked bereft of ideas.

"I guess we can only hope the others have better luck finding her on the road." Char said to us.

"We can only hope indeed, because hope does so much for solving problems." Elith said sarcastically. "It wouldn't be somewhat worth checking out the road between Carvail Manus to Carvail Fauna, because that's just a dumb idea."

"Despite the attitude, Elith's right about this." I said. "It's better than staying idle."

* * *

Isaac, Carvail Fauna

* * *

After searching a while we weren't able to find Clara in the crowd of Faunus, so Clara is either inside where she can't hear us or is between here and Manus.

"Guys, we still have one more route to check." Dusty said. "We should probably search the road between here and Carvail Manus." We quickly made our way towards that gate and set out onto the road. We walked in silence for a bit before I decided to break it out of boredom/to relieve my anxiety about this whole situation.

"So Dusty, did Clara generally go for frequent walks for no reason." I asked him.

"Yeah, don't know why she keeps doing it though." Dusty explained. "She usually stays up late walking and wakes up really early, makes her practically require coffee to operate."

"That explains a lot." I said simply.

"Something's wrong here though, she doesn't walk very far on those walks and is home by the time everyone else wakes up." Dusty added. I was about to respond to him before I noticed something in the tree line, it looked like a game trail of some kind winding its way into the direction of the mountain before leaving view.

"Think she may have gotten sidetracked and went here?" I said, at this point I was grasping at sand in the wind in the hopes we wouldn't have to find that Clara was dead or kidnapped.

"I'll go down the trail, you guys keep going up the road." Coal said.

"Are you sure, isn't it dangerous to go near the Grimm infested mountain?" I mentioned.

"I used to be a Hunter, so I think I can handle myself." Coal retorted.

"At least one of u-" Dusty started.

"No, just go ahead and keep your eyes peeled." Coal interjected.

"Fine, your funeral." Dusty said, we parted ways and me and Dusty continued down the road.

* * *

?, road between C. Manus and C. Fauna

* * *

"Ow, there are so many freaking little stickers and thorns here!" A guy groaned from within the forest.

"Maybe you should've thought about that before wearing the least defensive clothing possible, or you could just use your aura." Another guy said. "Look at me, the armour I wear lets me not have to worry about that."

"Wasting precious defensive aura on thorns, brilliant idea." Guy A said.

"Will both of you shut up, at this rate the Grimm we're tracking will hear us." A girl spoke up.

"I agree, you two are going to screw everything up." A third guy muttered. "Check the map, are we getting near a road or a town?" The sounds of crinkling paper resound from the forest.

"Yeah, we seem to be pretty close to these three towns with the same name." Guy B said.

"How close?" The girl asked.

"We should hit one of the roads to them in abou-" the sentence rudely interrupted by the world as all of team LIAC tumbled out of a large bush into the road. "-t now." Argus finished.

"Thanks for the heads up." Ivory muttered, her voice muffled since she was currently being crushed by Argus.

"Alright, let's find a town and then get back to tracking tomorrow." Carter said.

 **Author's notes**

 **The thick plottens. Will Clara ever find her mysteriously disappearing teammates? Will a town ever find team LIAC? Will frustration stop being Elith? Will a case ever remember it needs to be solved by team D-EICE? Find out next time on EICE as cold. Please leave a review.**


	31. Judgement

Chapter 31

Judgement

* * *

Erik, road between C. Manus and C. Fauna

* * *

Almost halfway there and no sign of Clara, but I was seeing something in the distance. Looked like a group of people, there were four of them so I had hope that the others had found Clara. As we got closer though I noted that it was an entirely different set of familiar faces, namely team LIAC. They were all stacked on top of each other in a comical pile, they were pulling themselves up until Ivory popped into a nearby shadow and pointed at us.

"Hey guys, it's Erik and Elith." She said.

"What the hell are they doing here?" Carter asked as he pulled himself up from the pile.

"We're on a mission, investigating problems here." Elith said.

"We're doing some search and destroy, we've been tracking a Beowolf that was part of an attack on a village for a few days now." Argus explained. "Tracks led us here."

"Where's Clara and Isaac?" Liath asked. "Also is that your hunter?"

"Clara's gone missing, we're looking for her right now, Isaacs currently searching with our hunter on another road." I explained. "And this is Char, he's just one of the captains of the guard here."

"Clara's what?" Carter said, he and his team seeming to instantly jump to panic mode.

"Missing." Elith clarified, seeming or acting like she couldn't tell he was surprised and not confused.

"Are we going to find everyone we know before we find Clara?" Isaac's voice suddenly cut in from behind team LIAC. He and Dusty came up and joined our group.

"Okay, so I'm assuming you guys didn't come across Clara on the way here?" Dusty said, looking more than a little on the brink of snapping.

"Nope." Char said simply.

"Alright, panic mode engaged." Dusty said. "Unless Coal found something down that game trail then we have no leads on Clara's whereabouts, so it's safe to assume that whoever took her is probably a professional about doing it to have pulled this off so spotlessly."

* * *

?, ?

* * *

"So I got the doses wrong, so what?" the masked man said to his cohort.

"So what?" the other guy said. "You could've jeopardized this whole operation you idiot."

"Look, let's not bicker and argue about who messed up what, let's just be okay with the fact that everything worked out in the end." masked guy A said.

"There's no bickering about who messed up, you said yourself you got the doses wrong!" masked guy B shouted back. "I swear to Azoth that I work with some of the most incompetent people ever!"

* * *

Elith, road between Carvail Fauna and Carvail Manus

* * *

I was getting a migraine from all of this, between a confusing case and a friend disappeared off the face of the earth I was having a little trouble sorting it all out in my head. I couldn't shake the feeling that all of this chaos was wrapped together somehow in a coherent way, but that was wishful thinking. If this was a kidnapping then it wouldn't be part of the case since that wouldn't explain the Grimm, unless…

"Are you okay?" a voice suddenly cut through my thoughts, I turned to see Ivory walking alongside me with a slightly concerned look on her face.

"Yeah just thinking about the case we've been on out here, it's perplexing and this extra problem is only worsening my understanding of the case." I explained.

"What even is the case, I might be able to help." Ivory asked, I spent the next five minutes explained what we know about the case to her.

"And that's the little we know about this whole ordeal." I explained.

"I can think of a way that people could have been involved in this." Ivory said, I raised my eyebrow at this. "Bandits tend to be negative people, perhaps they used that to their advantage by drawing Grimm in to attack people?"

"That's one theory, but how would it loop in with Clara's kidnapping." I asked, taken with this new train of thought.

"Perhaps they saw her ability to train Grimm as a useful asset, do I really need to explain why such a group would see that?" She said simply, I was surprised that this theory actually had some merit to it.

"That makes sense, thanks for the idea." I thanked her. Now that I had a new way to register the case that made some sense , I decided to think about how Pewters suicide tied in later for the sake of avoiding a headache. My thought process was interrupted once more as someone came onto the road next to us, it was Coal.

"There's nothing down the path besides Grimm, but it was worth checking." Coal said.

"Alright, the case has definitely become a secondary issue at the moment." Dusty said.

"On the bright side I'm on a hunch that the two are connected somehow, I'll explain later." I said

* * *

Clara, ?

* * *

I don't know how long I'd slept, I had waited for the 'judgement' the person had mentioned until I couldn't stave off sleep from boredom. Sleep had been dreamless and fitful, even for me it was hard to fall asleep on this cold stone. I pulled myself and rubbed my eyes, damn I wish I had some coffee right now. As soon as sleepy blurriness left my eyes I examined the room to find that I had a visitor at my door, it was the person with the flowing robes who said I mimicked them.

"You again, what do you want?" I ask them.

"I see you choose to have little patience this time." They said in that monotone.

"I tend to be impatient before I have coffee." I explain. "Not really my choice to be a coffeeholic."

"I believe we could get you coffee, best that you are fully awake for what you will go through." They replied simply. "You shall get your coffee after sating my curiosity."

"Alright, if you have questions I'll answer." I say, as long as the questions didn't go too far I'd answer them for coffee.

"How many Grimm have you held under your will at a time?" They asked.

"I once took over a small pack of Beowolves." I answered. "But that's not hard seeing as they take the least aura to control."

"So when you say taking aura, how do you mean." They asked.

"I mean I spend some my aura, actually it's more like severing some of my aura and embed it in the Grimm." I explained. "So I actually reduce how much aura I can have."

"Interesting, I shall require you to demonstrate that today." They said simply.

"You're just going to give me a Grimm?" I asked.

"In a controlled environment." They added, they then walked off and I was left to the silence of the cave.

* * *

Isaac, Carvail main

* * *

When we got back to Carvail main we found rooms for team LIAC on the bottom floor, Ivory took Clara's room to save money though. After that we all retired to our rooms for a little bit to rally ourselves before Dusty set up his next commands. I searched around my bag for a distraction, I'm pretty sure my brain would shut down if I didn't distract myself from all of this stress.

" _So, that cat you call a friend is missing?"_ I heard my dad's voice cut in. Great, his 'wise' voice was precisely what I need to hear right now. " _Look on the bright side, you lost one stupid animal and you just picked up two more."_

" _Shut up, I don't want to hear about it right now."_ I thought back to him.

" _And when did I say that you had a choice about hearing it, have fun trying to shut up whatever ethereal form I've become."_ He taunted. " _I've got things to say and no inherent need to breath to continue talking."_ If I wasn't so annoyed with him I may have laughed at that, I sat down on my bed and readied myself for a long lecture.

" _I guess you're right about one thing at least."_ I conceded.

" _I've been right about everything son, from how I raised you to the decision that led to you killing me."_ He countered. " _I think I only made one real mistake, acted a little soft sometimes."_

" _You, acting soft?"_ I replied, rolling my eyes. " _What, did you go a whole day without killing someone or something?"_

" _Oh, every once and awhile I decided to let some of my marks die quickly, the one I regret is a special case though."_ He explained. " _Through some goodness of my heart I decided to go quickly when running through that wolf of you-"_

"Shut up!" I unintentionally shouted aloud. My dad's presence quickly faded as someone opened up the door, it was Elith.

"Who are you shouting that too?" Elith asked. "I know Clara's missing, but that's no reason for you to lose your sanity immediately." My mind grasped for some way to excuse myself for having yelled, I noted I was still laying in bed.

"Umm, another bad dream." I said, in what I swear would fall on a list of 'top ten worst lying voices'. She narrowed her eyes and then smirked, somehow I got the feeling she caught my lie.

"I doubt it, I heard you shuffling through your bag just a little bit ago." Elith said. "So who else is in here?"

"No one, I swear." I said, this was becoming unfortunately reminiscent of the situation with Yang from before.

"Isaac, if you're going to lie to me can you at least answer a different question then?" She proposed.

"Fine, what's the question?" I asked.

"You've been dodging my question about your semblance, I want answers." Elith stated.

"Well, If I'm going to explain that then I might as well tell you why I was talking to myself." I said, I went on to explain the details of my semblance and partially explained the events leading to my dad's death, subtracting Eriks involvement.

"Well, that's quite the story." Elith said simply. "I think I understand you a little better now, sorry if telling that made you uncomfortable."

"No, it's good to tell others." I assure her. "So now you have your answer to my hated semblance, and why I disappeared that one time."

"I understand you on hating your semblance, I thought I was the only one who thought of theirs as a curse." Carters voice suddenly joined in, I jerked my head to see him poking through. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but sometimes these ears are just better than is good for them."

"How much did you hear?" I groaned.

"The start, bits of the middle, and the end." He said.

"So all of it is what you mean." Elith clarified.

"Yeah." He admitted. "I tried to ignore some of the personal parts though."

"You said you hated your semblance too?" I asked, attempting to shift the direction of conversation.

"I essentially speed up for a short time and generate lots of aura, but once the time runs out I literally explode and get knocked out." Carter explained. "It's pretty counteractive to fighting effectively."

"Sounds like it." I said simply.

"Alright everyone, time for a brief of our plans." I heard Dusty call.

* * *

Clara, ?

* * *

The cloaked person returned in front of me clutching a simple wooden cup, they set it down and then removed a key from their pocket.

"I'm going to open your door now, do not run or you will find yourself lost." They said simply. "Follow me and do not deviate, you're being taken to judgement." They then unlocked and opened the door, I walked out to them and they began walking off. I picked up the cup, assuming it was the coffee I'd asked for. Being closer to and behind them I was able to make out more detail, they had inky black hair which concealed their walked in silence through a twisting cave system, I spent a while desperately trying to memorise paths and inevitably losing track. I decided to mine for information instead.

"You said before that my Beowolf confused you, I assume you have him around here?" I asked.

"Yes, how did that being come to pass?" They asked. "It behaves sentient instead of controlled like your Ursa." I explained the event of Dakotas creation and what I knew of him.

"And that's all I can say about that, my turn to ask a question." I said. "Why are you keeping me here?"

"I don't believe that's how this functions, you are in no position to ask questions." They stated, their neutral tone catching a slight hint of sarcasm. I took the hint and returned to silence, the silent march continued for a few minutes before we reached our destination. It was a large chamber, stone bleachers lined one of the walls facing a twentyfive foot deep hole while a sort of podium was on the other side of the pit. The rest of the room was filled with cages filled with various Grimm, for some reason none of them were pacing or trying to break free. For some reason I was getting the idea that they weren't talking about courtroom styled judgement all of a sudden, and I was becoming very aware of my lack of weapons and reduced aura.

 **Author's notes**

 **Aura's a confusing concept isn't it?**


	32. To the mountains

Chapter 32

* * *

To the mountains

* * *

Clara, ?

* * *

The cloaked person pulled me along to the podium to the edge that overlooked the pit and gestured for me to stay. We stood for a while with only the sounds of growls and a slight whistle from the wind blowing through some unseen hole, it would be calming if I was not currently being held captive by people with an inscrutable goal. I wondered how long the group had to exist to have carved out the features of this room, the cuts were clean and the place seemed expertly made. Footsteps suddenly became audible as more people wearing Grimm masks filed into the room, they seemed to be an even combination of Faunus and humans. They took seats at the carved bleachers and waited patiently for something, this something arrived in the form of my cloaked 'friend' beginning to speak.

"Followers, friends, we gather in this chamber for the judgment of the false one. Today we are to discover the truth or the lies within her powers, whether we were mistaken or if your belief in me can be held as true." They began, I was honestly impressed that they could raise their voice so much without changing pitch at all. "May this Judgement bring forth the great calm."

"For Azoth and the great calm." The gathered muttered in unison. The cloaked person who I assumed to be this Azoth character grabbed me by my shirt and pulled me towards the pit and turned me towards them.

"Simply use your gift upon the beasts as we send them, that's all you need to do." They whispered before I could even think about why he was whispering this or what was going on he pushed me backward. As I lost balance and began to fall I made a split second decision and thrust my hand out to grab Azoth, my hand caught his mask and took it with me. I knew my aura would protect me, but I made an attempt to lessen the impact by rolling on impact. It worked and I hardly felt a thing after my aura took the brunt of it.

I looked back up at Azoth; they were clutching their face, not in pain, but to prevent me from seeing it I think. I could still see his eyes though, their irises were an unnatural red colour. I looked at the mask in my hand, it was made of wood on the outside and metal on the inside with padding for comfort. I would have to make this work as some kind of shield; because unless my hand was forced, I would not be using my semblance after all of that encouragement to do so.

"Release a Beowolf," Azoth said. One of the masked people pointed at one of the cages and the cage began to shift and open, the Beowolf inside leaped out into the pit. It was a smaller Beowolf, about my height while crouched. I looked around for anything even slightly sharp around here, even though Yang had been teaching me I doubted I was good enough at unarmed fighting to kill any Grimm. The only option I saw here was chipped part of the wall, it looked sharp but it was still pretty well attached to the wall and I doubt I could get it out unless... The Beowolf charged at me and I had to dodge, this made it slam into the wall behind me and confirm my plan of attack. I ran over to where the chipped wall was and waited for the beast to rush me again, which it foolishly did again. I rolled to my left and watched it smash right in the chipped part, I heard a crack that could be one of two things breaking on the wall and the sharp shard of rock that fell to the ground in front of told me which one. I quickly grabbed it, it was about the size of one of Isaac's daggers. I didn't want to risk having that Beowolf rush me again seeing as it might be catching on to my dodges, so I instead ran straight at it and it pounced to greet me. Just before the beast hit me I slid under it, thrust the rock upwards, and held up the mask to block the claws. The claws scraped across the mask and left three gashes on its surface, the rock caught on the belly and tore across the chest of the Beowolf. A crimson spray splashed down on me as the monster flopped onto the ground behind me, alive but severely wounded. I rushed the beast before it could rise and I jabbed the rock into its throat, movement ceased and I heard murmurs from above me.

"You proved nothing through this except your guile, either use your power if you have it or die." Azoth's voice sounded from above.

"I don't trust all of this push for me to use my semblance, sorry." I shouted back.

"If you choose to be so obstinate then I shall send a Grimm that you will have trouble defeating with that rock of yours." The same man from the before pointed at another cage and released a Grimm I'd never seen in real life, a Beringel. Looks like my hand was forced now, I'd heard of whole teams of fully armed hunters having trouble with these things.

* * *

Dusty, two days later

* * *

We'd been searching incessantly for the past days; interrogating people, asking about witnesses, searching for evidence, and trying to figure anything out about Clara. Isaac had been becoming crestfallen about the ordeal whole ordeal and I think he was close to giving up, he'd been keeping to himself mostly aside from talking to Elith. I'd asked him about it and he simply said 'This is just reminding me too much of some things, I'm having trouble dealing with it right now.' Along with making no progress on the Clara part, the original was turning out unsolvable as well. As far as people would tell us there had been no Grimm attacks since we arrived and our daily road searches hadn't turned up any sites. Team LIAC had quickly determined that the mountain was their goal due to its intense concentration of Grimm, but had decided to delay going to it to prepare as well as help us in our searches. Even with the eyes of four third years with us, we weren't getting any closer, they'd helped as much as they could though it didn't seem to be much. Coal wasn't with us for the search today, said he had other duties to attend to. I wasn't sure about this whole situation, whenever we were on our searches I felt that uncomfortable feeling of being watched. I got the same feeling when in town, though I credited it to the patience of the townsfolk wearing thin on the account of eight armed people moving through their town.

* * *

Isaac, the road between Carvail Fauna and Carvail Manus

* * *

I moved through the brush in the forest, there was never anything along the roads so I chose to search in the forest to see if I could find anything different. Alas, there was nothing as I had come to expect, the disappointment was easy to get accustomed to but it was the loss of hope that got me.

 _"Well get over that too, cause my bet is that you aren't getting that cat back."_ My dad said, chuckling a bit. He was walking backwards in front of me, his crimson form phasing through objects.

"Do you ever consider ceasing to speak, because that would be great." I asked him.

 _"I believe we've already been over this, the answer is no."_ He said with a smirk. _"Speaking of missing people, I wonder if your mom and siblings have figured out I'm not coming back."_ I decided against answering that, that was one of the last things I wanted to think about. I beat my dad, but I doubted my capabilities of facing four killers. My thoughts were thankfully drawn from this as I heard the sounds of the others meeting up on the road, once again the search had ended Claraless. I returned to the road to join up and we began the trip back to Carvail main, I walked at the back of the group as I wanted to think rather than talk. But despite frequently being asked to do otherwise, Elith trailed back with me and started to talk.

"Please, can you let me be for one day?" I asked her, I appreciated the concern but not the act.

"No, not until you stop acting so strangely." Elith said. "You can't just be giving up so early on, I won't let you do that.

"Can you remind me when you became so insufferably caring?" I asked.

"The moment you became so insufferably concerning and antisocial." She replied simply.

"Fair play, but I still don't want to talk." I replied.

"Whats making you like this?" Elith asked. "Is it something to do with the whole-" She pointed to her head in a gesture I assumed to be referring to my dad.

"Not entirely." I said. the rest of the walk was mostly her playing her guessing game as I gave her unsatisfactory response.

* * *

Erik, the road to Carvail Main

* * *

My eyes swept across the area for Clara, despite the unlikeliness of finding her. I was about to stop before I was startled by something I'd almost forgotten about, my vigilantium. It gave a loud beep and I heard an electronic voice whisper 'forty feet back, climbing.' About fifty things rushed through my mind immediately after hearing this; we were being followed stealthily, who was it, do they have ill intent, is it someone who just happens to be casually climbing trees? I didn't want to twirl around or make obvious glances behind us, I didn't want to drop hints that I knew they were there. I instead opted to turn around to talk to the nearest person behind me, Liath.

"So Liath, what are your thoughts on this whole ordeal?" I asked, he was silent for a while which gave me the chance to covertly scan the area behind us. At first, I saw nothing, but then I saw a glint of something in the treeline that seemed out of place. It was a white colour shifting about in the trees, I couldn't discern much detail past that seeing as it was behind multiple branches and leaves. I examined the branches for shaking or any other sign of movement that could tell me where they were moving next, but whatever it was seemed hesitant to move.

"It bothers me, it seems impossible that the kidnappers were unseen and yet we are told no one saw anything." Liath explained. It was as Liath started talking that I saw one branch suddenly sag as a new weight was placed on it, I reached down as casually as I could for the button on Homicida.

"Don't respond to what's about to happen." I whispered to Liath, I didn't want him to betray my plans.

"What are you about-" Liath began, he was interrupted as I swiftly tapped the button causing the pistol barrel to pop out. "Umm, Erik…" I almost felt bad for interrupting him twice as I rapidly took aim for the branch and pulled the trigger, cracking it and causing the weight of the stalker to break it off. Everyone whirled to look at the source of the gunshot and then to the person who'd fallen from the trees. They were a little shorter than me and wore mottled green clothing, the face was covered by a white Grimm mask.

"Man, that was a lucky shot." I whispered to myself. "Can everyone stop looking slack-jawed and get them?" I started running at them, the masked stalker quickly righted themselves and started to run into the forest. Carter and Liath were the fastest to rush after the person and Ivory literally vanished, the rest of us ran a little behind

"How did you figure out we were being followed?" Dusty asked, his speaking hardly hindered despite being at a full sprint.

"This is a vigilantium." I explained, pointing to the metal triangle. "It alerts me of unheard footsteps and the like."

"Oh." He responded. Running resumed for a while and we eventually came upon a clearing, not too far from the mountain. Carter and Liath were here combating the masked person, but their blows seemed to be passing right through them. Every time a hit connected, the point of impact flickered like a tv with poor connection before they disappeared and reappeared nearby.

* * *

Elith, clearing

* * *

My mind ran through all of the new information, trying to see how this stalker fit into the puzzle. Why were they following us, were they white fang, and were they related to the case and/or Clara's disappearance? Regardless of any of that, what mattered at the moment was the problem they presented in the fact they seemed untouchable. Even Dusty's entrapping semblance did nothing, the chains sprouted and simply went through them. They didn't seem panicked by being surrounded and attacked, instead, they looked like they were calmly thinking about the situation.

"How dense are you all that you'd keep attacking and wear yourselves out when attacking clearly doesn't work." They said calmly, the voice sounded feminine.

"She makes a point." Ivory said, she'd stop shooting arrows after two shots had done nothing.

"Let me walk out of here or Azoth forbid that I have to fight you incompetents." They proposed.

"That's a negative on that one." Dusty said simply.

"And how do you propose that you'll stop me, with the impressive display of ineptness I've seen so far?" They taunted as they moved a little ways towards the clearing.

"You won't flee." I said simply, catching on to something.

"I won't, really?" they stated sarcastically.

"If you run then you know we can outrun you and you'd lead us straight to where your base is." I'll admit that the last part was a bluff, I have no idea if they have a base or not.

"You make a fair point, problem is that it doesn't matter if you reach the base." She replied. "In fact, you've given me an idea." They then dashed off into the trees.

"After them!" Dusty called out. "But be careful, no doubt the idea was an ambush." We ran after them, after five minutes of hot pursuit we stumbled into a clearing at the base of the mountain. I fell to the ground as Erik accidentally bumped me on his way out of the trees. I dusted myself off to pull myself up to be face to face with,,, my dad?

* * *

Clara, ?

* * *

I didn't care anymore, I was weary and unwilling to resist any longer. Anytime I didn't do as told I would lose a meal or have my sleep interrupted, so I just went along with these 'judgments'. I could tell my aura was running thin between the Beringel, two Ursas, a Nevermore, and a Beowolf. I would bet I would have none left after this, but what else was I going to do against this beowolf unarmed and at the point where one blow would take all my aura off? I slammed my hand into the Beowolf, coursing all that remained of my aura into the monster. It came to a halt and I could feel through it, it was a familiar feeling but now it came with a new and unpleasant one. I felt ill, not the stomach in knots kind, it was like a headache but with the feeling across the whole body. I credited it to my aura no longer alleviating my weariness to any degree, unfortunate.

"Well, before the sun has set we'll see whether she is like me or merely a mimicry." Azoth called down. "I feel that she has now breached the divide and can be enlightened as I have, for the great calm have faith in my words." I was guided back to my prison and given the fullest meal yet, they even gave me a large jug of water. I reached for it but clearly was too tired for my spatial awareness to be good seeing as I knocked it over, the majority of its contents spilled out before I could right it. I went over to where the water was pooling and looked sadly at the puddle, but I noted something odd in my reflection. My dark blue eyes had strange streaks in them resembling the pattern of cracks in glass, the streaks were a light crimson.

 **Author's notes**

 **Don't you love it when things occur? I know I love watching occurring things occur, it's a pleasant occurrence to me when something occurs. Leave a review about why you think things occur and the nature of occurrences.**


	33. Hearts desire

Chapter 33

Hearts desire

* * *

Clara, ?

* * *

I felt weird, sick, wrong, and numerous other terms for feeling like shit. It was more than my eyes now, the cracks didn't seem to be worsening but others were changing. My auburn hair was progressively getting more and more jet black streaks in it. Even my senses were being changed, I was smelling unusual scents that I'd never noticed before that procured odd thoughts and my hearing felt keener than usual. I was scared by what was happening, I didn't understand it and wanted it to stop. I was left to stew with these changes and this sickening feeling for what felt like hours, I eventually curled up and tried to ignore the feelings. Something suddenly didn't feel right in the room, something had changed. I looked up to see that my door was open, was this some kind of trick? Against my better judgement, I ran out and into the hall, I immediately picked up on another strange scent that made me think of helplessness, being alone, and mostly of fear. I felt drawn to it and made my way down the halls to where it was coming from, I felt confused about why it drew me so, but for some reason, I couldn't make myself stop. I continued down the halls for ages until I heard something behind me, but I didn't feel like turning my head or caring about what it was. I had an inexplicable feeling as though I knew what it was already and that it was perfectly safe, which in the current setting made no sense. I was even further confused as the noise came in front of me, revealing itself to be a beowolf. I don't know what confused me more, that it hardly noted I was there or that I felt no fear for it. If anything I felt like I trusted it as a long time friend or ally, this disconcerted me but did not shake the feeling. I was slowly joined by more Grimm, all of them ignoring me and walking with me. I was feeling my concern and confusion slowly fade away into a more singular drive of wanting to find the source of this scent, it was as though it grated on me and was egging me on to find it and get rid of it. I don't know how long this pursuit had gone, I didn't care, It didn't matter did it?

Finally, we reached what had to be the destination, the room reeked of this scent of fear and despair and it was easy to see the source. A cage stood in the centre of the room that held this strange looking creature, I could practically see the dreadful scent pouring out of it. The creature had two arms and legs and stood upright. I almost didn't question the last part before I realised that I myself was moving on all fours, as were my friends, which made this creature the odd one.

"Oh gods, someone help!" The creature screamed, the scent seemed to worsen in the room. "Whoever took me here, don't let me die by Grimm!" We started pacing around the cage, we all clearly wanted the same thing, to make this horrid stench go away. I wondered what to do when we broke the cage, how would we make the creature stop producing the stench? I was deprived of an answer as something else entered the room, another familiar presence but somehow different. I turned my head to see a creature standing like the one in the cage, yet with a face like my friends and no scent. It took a moment, but a word popped into my head that connected with the figure, Azoth.

"Well, you can take after me in all ways then." Azoth said to me. I didn't trust this creature, it seemed so similar yet different in some strange frustrating way. I pounced at the Azoth but felt redirected as it grabbed me and slammed me into the ground. We had a back and forth exchange for some time until it pinned me to the ground and held me there, and no matter how I struggled or lashed out I couldn't right myself. After a while of this pointless struggle I tired and surrendered, this 'Azoth' was superior and to be feared not fought. I should've taken that from the rest of the pack not attacking Azoth. I crouched down and looked up at it. "I knew you would come here, it's because of him, right?" They pointed at the cage for emphasis, I nodded my head. "You probably don't even recognise them as human anymore, do you?" I didn't quite understand him on that one, I wasn't sure why that term mattered.

"You know, I was once like you are now. No aura, lost, confused by the change. That was so long ago during a walk in the woods, I was unarmed when I was attacked by Beowolves and only my semblance could save me. I dominated the entire pack, bending them to my will but at the cost of all my aura. I started making my way home but found myself lost and oddly not caring that I was. Like you, I caught on to this unusual scent except in my case it was a scent of anger, not fear. The man I found was armed and easily dispatched two of my beowolves, returning some of my aura and awakening me from this state before I did something I regretted. I didn't know what to do, so I fled with my remaining Beowolves." Azoth explained, I was hearing the words he was saying, but I didn't really understand them. It was like remembering how a squirrel squeaked at you, you know the sounds but not the meaning. "That's when I found this mount-"

It was interrupted as another creature, this one fully like the creature in the cage aside from wearing a mask like the Azoth, entering the room. It came up to Azoth, I felt drawn to strike at it but I felt that Azoth would stop me again if I did. That fear didn't fully quell the want though, just suppressed it.

"Azoth, we have a problem." It said. "Some people are near the mountain, eight armed hunters."

"Deal with them as always, thank you for informing me." Azoth said.

"One step ahead of you, Voda is already down there stopping them." The creature responded. I wondered what the pitiful creature was talking about, what were 'hunters'?

"Well, it seems I'll have to cut this part short, follow me." Azoth gestured for me to follow, so I did out of fear of another fight.

* * *

Elith, base of the mountain

* * *

I shook my head and rubbed my eyes, what I was seeing made absolutely no sense and yet here they were. My father standing in front of me in the flesh, but it had to be impossible. How would he know where I was, why was he here, did he somehow tie in with the events going on here. Regardless of his reasons, I was prepared for anything he might say or do.

"Daughter, I'm sorry for everything I've forced on you or tried to." He said a sad expression on his face. Ok, I'll admit, I wasn't prepared for everything. "Please come back home, I don't care how you behave, dress or act anymore." I quite honestly felt like Weiss had at the dance when I turned up in a tuxedo, I was confused as to how I should respond. Dad+not an asshole=does not compute.

"What do you think you're going to accomplish, I know you haven't changed like this if you don't want something." I said, he seemed like he was honest, but he also told lies for a living so I didn't know what to think.

"A man can't have a change of heart?" He said. "Please believe me." It suddenly registered with me where we were again, why hadn't that been the first thing I asked him? How had that so easily slipped my mind, I had things to do and whatever the mystery of my father's presence meant would have to wait.

"Sorry dad, I have other things to do right now." I said coldly to him, pushing him aside. Two things happened immediately after I did that; I stumbled as my hands fell through him, and suddenly I started noticing my surroundings more clearly. My dad wasn't there anymore and my friends were all standing around and performing various acts that made them look like they'd gone insane.

"No, no you can't be here and walking around like this!" Isaac shouted at empty space. "You're dead, I saw your corpse at that funeral!" He was clutching his head and a few tears were streaming from his eyes.

"Just show me your face, I'm tired of not knowing who you are." Erik said calmly, yet I picked up an undertone of desperation. "I'm tired of having a family of masked people." He was pacing back and forth.

"What are you doing here Brim, I thought you to be dead." Dusty said with a grin. "Why didn't you call me if you got out of that mess?"

"I thought I'd lost this forever, how did you get here." Carter said as he dusted the ground and picked up thin air. Ivory was silently sitting on an unseen chair with a smug expression on her face. Argus was having a hushed conversation that I couldn't overhear, he had a proud face on. Liath simply stood there, with an expression one could only describe as satisfied.

Was this how I looked just a moment ago, talking to my fake dad? What the hell was causing this and how do I make my friends snap out of it. A sudden impact to my chest drew my thought process elsewhere, I looked down to see a broken arrow. I love my aura so much sometimes, I counted this as the fifty-seventh time it has saved me from a fatal surprise attack. I rolled out of the way of another shot and looked up to see my attacker, it was the masked person from before and she had a friend with her now. It was another masked person, who had a large build and currently seemed to be fully focused elsewhere at the moment.

"Wait, how'd you know to dodge?" she said in surprise. "You shouldn't be aware right now."

"I don't know, maybe because your friend doesn't make very convincing illusions." I said jokingly as I swiftly dipped my hands into my pockets and pulled out a purple crystal. Great, I managed to grab the one I'm least familiar with, time for impromptu dust usage. She drew her bow and shot it at me, I quickly crushed the crystal and thrust my hand outwards. A wave of force blasted out from my hands, ripping grass from the ground and launching rocks off. I flew backwards from recoil but managed to right myself fast enough to see the blast hit her, she flickered and appeared elsewhere like before but this time she fell to the ground as though she'd been hit.

"So you aren't untouchable." I called up to my ambusher. I was starting to get a theory about how they worked.

"Of course I'm not, but I doubt you have enough dust to keep firing wildly like that to hit me." she taunted. They were right, I had to find a way to figure out how to consistently hit them. It was difficult to think through the problem when under constant fire from my opponent, so difficult that it took me two minutes to see the answer right in front of me. I watched the person draw an arrow from their quiver, load it, draw the bowstring and fire. The arrow never launched from the bow, it disappeared and came flying out of a point five feet off from her. Her semblance must displace her appearance and make her look like she's somewhere else, hence the arrow showing up elsewhere. I grinned and reached for another dust crystal, I wound up pulling out some ice dust. I had an idea, one that would let me know where they were and bring them discomfort at the same time. I dropped the crystal at my feet and stomped down on it as hard as I could, I could only hope now that Erik's book was right about this system. I extended my hand down and focused on the rush of energy that would normally flash freeze someone, the energy calmed and bent to my will. I guided the dust to create as much of the one thing that betrayed anyone who was trying to sneak, snow. A sudden whirlwind of snow burst out from me and sheeted the battlefield and my hidden opponent as a bonus. Her displaced self had snow covering them, but there was some snow floating in the air five feet next to it.

"I see you!" I said.

"Clever, I guess I'll have to deal with you properly now." She said, sounding incredibly bored. She ran towards me and withdrew two strange weapons, a sword that was straight for a few inches and then curved into a half circle and a dagger with an elaborate cross piece that was almost as tall as the blade. I drew my Sanguinems and took up a defensive stance, this proved to be my first mistake. She swung out with the curved sword which I easily caught with one blade by hooking the half moon with the serrated edge. What I didn't expect was the blade suddenly curling in and grabbing mine. With a swift pull she dislodged it from my hands, And now I was left with solely one Sanguinem and no time to pull off a dust trick. She kept striking, I managed to dodge most blows though a few made contact. I needed to think fast or lose my head literally, I ducked down swiftly and swiped my leg out at her. This worked and she went tumbling into the snow, with no hesitation I swung down at them with a two-handed strike. I made two successful strikes before things took a turn for the worse. She caught the third strike on the crosspiece of the dagger and redirected the blow into the snow. She wasted no time punching my arm and making me drop my Sanguinem, I was now officially unarmed. I made a clone off behind her and gave it a hasty mental command. I desperately punched her to distract her from the clone, I successfully hit the mask and made it fall off her face. She staggered back and looked up at me, wiping a bit of blood off her nose.

"You know, Azoth tells us to take trespassers alive so they can hear our plans and maybe join." She said angrily. "But Azoth Isn't here and I just don't particularly like you." She kicked me in the chest and I fell to the ground, I felt the full pain and knew my aura was depleted.

"I'm sure he's been told numbers, he'll know tha-" I didn't finish that sentence, she swiped her curved sword across my chest. The cut didn't get too deep, but that didn't make it any more pleasant. I screamed in pain as they raised the blade to strike again, but it was my turn to intercept an attack. A sickening crunch sounded as her expression blanked and she fell over, behind her stood my clone clutching a rather large rock.

"What took you so long?" I muttered in pain.

"It was hard to find a rock when you sheeted everything in snow." It countered.

"Touche, just go knock out the other guy before he stops making those illusions." I muttered.

* * *

Isaac, Clearing

* * *

She'd stopped talking, was the apparition gone or simply waiting for me to stand and look at it? I cracked my eyes open and saw that Hearth was no longer standing there, but instead, there was a sight almost as perplexing and terrifying. The clearing was covered in snow and I spotted three bodies on the ground, one of them being Elith. The snow around Elith was crimson and she looked like she was clutching her chest, in other words, something out of my recurring nightmares. I scrambled to my feet and ran over to her, I quickly assessed her state. Thankfully my dad's training had given me a bit of talent in medical assessment, in a twisted reverse engineering way. The cut was about two inches deep, life-threatening but treatable.

"Hey, Isaac." Elith muttered weakly. "Saved your life."

"I'll ask how later, try not to talk too much right now." I said, trying to not sound too panicked. I rummaged around my bags for anything I could use to staunch the bleeding, I found nothing among my spare parts and other assorted materials.

"Does anyone have medical supplies?" I heard Dusty ask, I'd been so preoccupied with Elith's state that I hadn't noticed everyone come over.

"I always keep some basic things on me." Argus said. "Cloth, needles, string, and some saline."

"Give them all to me." Dusty said simply, Argus tossed him a small bag. Dusty set straight to business, using his semblance to keep Elith from squirming during the procedure. Once it was all through, the wound was stitched together somewhat well and some cloth was held to it to stop the remaining bleeding. "This will have to do until she gets some aura back."

"While we wait, it might be worth questioning these two people if they wakeup." Erik said, gesturing to the two unconscious bodies.

* * *

Erik, clearing

* * *

We didn't have any rope so we just had to hope that a loaded weapon pointed at them would be inspiration enough for them to stand still. The large guy was the first to wake up, he looked between us all silently for a bit and sighed.

"I won't fight back, I know the odds." They muttered, their voice sounded familiar. I reached forward and pulled off their mask, behind it was Coal's face.

"So Coal, how about you tell us what kind of business it is that kept you from helping us out today?" Dusty said. "But first I want to know what made those illusions."

"My semblance, it feeds off the memory of its targets and makes them see something they truly want." Coal explained. "Whether it be an object, a person, or a change in something." That explains why I saw my dad, and judging by the faces of the people around me it explained a lot to them as well.

"Now can you tell me what's going on here? What's with the Grimm masks and the whole attacking us deal?" Dusty said. "And make it quick, because I have an injured student and a kidnapped student that I'm convinced now is on this mountain."

"I'm sorry, but it's starting to look like I won't need to answer that." Coal said simply, shrugging. I heard a growl behind me and turned to see a large group of assorted Grimm quickly surrounding us. "I'm afraid they're here for you and not me, I have a free pa-" He was cut off as Liath slammed his pommel into the back of his head. All faces turned toward Liath.

"What? He said he wasn't going to say anything. We can come back for him, and he's got his 'free pass' anyways, so who cares? Fuck 'em." Liath said simply.

"Live and let live, my thoughts exactly Liath!" Ivory said as she ducked into Liath's shadow and vanished. The rest of us ran towards the only visible entrance to the mountains, it'd be easier to lose the Grimm there than in the forest. Isaac ran over and picked up Elith, who was still in no shape to get up and run, before joining us. Ivory kept us covered with a constant rain of arrows as we all filed in. Once we reached the entrance we kept moving, but I noticed Dusty had stopped.

"Dusty, what are you doing?" I shouted at him.

"I'll stop them, you guys go ahead and stick together." The Hunter said simply, I raised my hand in protest but he cut me off. "I'd prefer you don't question the fully trained hunter and run off, I'll be damned if I miss out on this good a fight because you're worried I can't handle myself."

 **Author's notes**

 **Don't you hate it when you have the upper hand for one moment and then it's stolen from you by a bunch of Grimm?**


	34. Simulacrum

Chapter 34

Simulacrum

* * *

Dusty, clearing

* * *

These Grimm were acting strange, they didn't look aged but they were acting like it. They were circling and watching me rather than rushing me, not that I was complaining since it gave me a chance to back up into the mountain path and make a choke point. Funny that I was fighting in such a spot so soon after seeing that illusion of Brim, cruel irony I guess. Once I backed into the path some of the Grimm rushed me, a few Beowolves and a particularly large Ursa. I extended my hands towards one of the Beowolves and ethereal golden chains burst from my hand and wrapped around it. Once the chains wrapped around it I grabbed them and pulled as hard as I could. The Beowolf was lifted into the air before it could touch the ground I tugged it in a new direction and slammed it into two of the other Beowolves. I was given no chance to celebrate as the Ursa bashed the other Beowolves aside to rush into the path and charge me, I waited until it was almost upon me and then jumped. I landed perfectly on the back of the Ursa, I wasted no time turning about and raising my shields. I clenched my fists to make my shields collapse into spiked gauntlets and slammed both of them non-lethally into the beast's shoulders, with both hands lodged in I pulled as hard as I could left. Faced with a decision to fall over or turn, the Ursa chose to turn with my pulling. I led it back to the choke point where some of the other Grimm were coming in after me, the Ursa tried to turn but I kept it on course. The Ursa crashed through them, crushing some of them underfoot. I managed to ram the monster through a few more groups of Grimm before it finally managed to throw me off, I rolled to my feet and made my gauntlets back into shields. A Beowolf rushed me and I responded by lashing out at its legs with my shield, breaking one and making the Beowolf fall to the ground. I quickly wrapped it in chains and began swinging it wildly into the horde, killing a few of its kin before it died from overuse.

"As much as I enjoy this fight, it would be quite convenient for both parties if you could all scatter," I proposed the Grimm. They responded by rushing at me. "Well, that's not very nice." And so, the fight resumed.

* * *

Isaac, mountain tunnels

* * *

The mountain path had quickly turned into a series of twisting tunnels, I was willing to bet we'd get lost pretty swiftly if we didn't find some clue to lead us around. We'd slowed to a march to save stamina, not that it made it easier for me since it simply gave Elith an easier time squirming and trying to get on her feet.

"I can walk Isaac." She complained for the fifteenth time. "She cut my chest, not my legs."

"It'll hurt more if you walk, which mean a longer time till your aura comes back," I explained.

"It's still demeaning to have you carry me like this, so let me walk." She persisted.

"Sorry, but I'd rather not have you die because you wanted to walk while injured," I said.

"Fine, continue." She groaned, putting on a pouty face. Seeing such a childish expression put on one of the more mature members of this whole team made me laugh a little. "Shut up or I'll start squirming again." The march continued silently for a while before we decided it was safe to rest and set up a few defences.

"If we keep moving then Dusty will never find us, does anyone have some skills in setting traps?" Erik asked. Me and Ivory raised our hands. "Good, place some in the tunnels." I laid Elith up against a wall and then me and Ivory quickly set to work, I made some makeshift traps from the scrap I'd bought a few days ago while Ivory seemed to be setting down weird looking arrowheads. After I felt we were well set, I went and sat down next to Elith.

"Hey, my wounds are starting to heal." She informed me. "I saw the far ends close a little and it's starting to hurt less."

"That's good, hopefully we can hold out here long enough to where your wounds close," I said.

"That's unlikely, a wound this big will take a bit of time," Elith said.

"You're such an optimist, you know that right?" I said.

"Optimism isn't as effective as logic. If I was an optimistic person I probably would've been fooled by Coal's illusions." She replied.

"Touche," I said. We sat silently for a good while, it would've been calming if we weren't in a tense waiting game right now.

"So what did you see when Coal had you fooled?" Elith suddenly asked. "You were saying stuff like 'you're dead, I saw your corpse at that funeral'."

"It's a long story," I replied. Of all things I would want to talk about right now, Hearth was the lowest on the list. Elith frowned and quickly jabbed at my neck. "Ow, what was that for?"

"I've decided to do that every time you're evasive, I'm getting tired of you not explaining things," Elith explained.

"Fine, I'll tell you when we get back to Beacon," I said, she jabbed my throat again.

"Promise?" She asked.

"Yeah," I answered, once more she struck my throat. "What was that one for?"

"I'll be honest, I just felt like doing that one." She replied with a shrug.

* * *

Clara, ?

* * *

Why had the Azoth bid me stay here? It was boring and there were scents I wanted to seek out so badly, they made me think of being annoyed or frustrated. I eventually decided to search around the room, it wouldn't stop the scents but at least it could provide a distraction from them. I quickly came across something in the room, it was a neat stack of strange looking items. They felt familiar though so I grabbed two identical items from the stack, two metal rings with six tubes on the outside. In an action that felt oddly practised, I slipped them onto my hands and found that they fit perfectly. Before I knew it, I had all of the pieces from the pile attached to me. After doing this I returned to waiting, after a while, I heard footsteps behind me. I twisted around to see the Azoth entering the chamber, he carried a mask that looked like his own.

"I see you found your things, hopefully you can still use them." It said. "I came to give you something, a mark of your new status." It walked up to me and pressed the mask against my face, it was comfortable and not very heavy. I liked the way it felt to wear, I felt good to look like the beings I felt such a kinship to.

"If all goes well we'll return some aura to you tomorrow, then our job will be explained," Azoth said. "And if Voda did her job correctly, your friends may join us." Who were my friends other than the Grimm that walked with me, what does he mean by that?

"But for now we must make way to the heart." Azoth walked and gestured for me to follow.

* * *

Elith, mountain tunnels

* * *

I felt woozy from all the blood I'd lost, my wounds were sealing bit by bit but aura doesn't speed up blood replenishment. To distract myself from the pain I tapped out the fingerings to some piano songs and tried to think about anything but my wounds. However it turned out I wouldn't need to find a way to distract myself from pain, distraction came in the form of footsteps from down the hall we came from followed by the sound of an explosion. The tunnel shook and I heard it collapsing down where the explosion was. Everyone turned to see Dusty walk out from the now-vanished path and dust himself off. He looked up at us and gave a small grin.

"I would like everyone here to know that I triggered that intentionally," Dusty said quickly. "Also, I'm pretty sure I've only stalled the horde by collapsing that tunnel, so we should probably get moving for the sake of not dying." He moved into one of the other tunnels and waved for us to come with him. Isaac quickly picked me up and we made haste with the others, except Ivory who was trailing behind muttering something about 'expensive arrowheads.' And things returned to the bumpy, demeaning ride that they had been.

* * *

Erik, mountain tunnels

* * *

"So what was all that about being able to handle yourself?" I asked Dusty jokingly.

"I was perfectly fine, it just occurred to me that the longer I waited, the harder it would be to find you kids." He replied indignantly

"Fair point." I conceded. "So, any idea where we should go?"

"Knowing the tropes of mountain bases, my bet is we need to find the centre of the mountain," Dusty said. "The only problem will be finding it."

"Let's hope they have a tour guide." Isaac cut in.

"If they don't, we can make a tour guide of one of those masked creeps if we bump into them," Carter added.

"Smart plan, keep an eye out," Dusty said. However, we didn't really need to keep our eyes peeled seeing as one would have to be blind to miss what was about to pass by. Dusty gestured for us to stop and to be quiet, then we all heard the footsteps he did. We waited until the footsteps passed by us, in a crossroad a few yards ahead of us two people were passing by. Both wore extra ornate grimm masks and they seemed to be making haste somewhere. One wore robes that were so flowing and large that it was difficult to gauge their physique and the other was walking on all fours. Dusty waited for them to pass before turning to us and speaking.

"Let's follow them, by their urgency I'd guess they're heading somewhere important," Dusty ordered.

 **Author's notes**

 **Am I the only one who thinks Grimm masks look awesome?**


	35. A problems heart

Chapter 35

A problems heart

* * *

Clara, Mountain tunnels

* * *

"I know that what I've done will seem unnecessary to you once you wake from this state, you'll probably ask why I had to expend all your aura rather than simply explain while you were captive," Azoth said. "I'm a good at gauging people, I doubted you would legitimately listen to me if you were forced to." Why did it continue to speak, does it not know I can't understand it? "So my answer to you is that I thought this was my only chance to explain." It was silent for a moment before speaking again. "We have to get to the heart quickly, something doesn't feel right."

* * *

Erik, Mountain tunnels

* * *

Stealth was one of the skills that, despite my mother's efforts, I never got very good at, I just seemed to have some inherent problem with moving silently. Because of this, I chose to stay in the back of the group with Liath, Carter, and Argus as we tailed these two. Dusty was in the lead, Ivory was close behind him and Isaac was in the middle of the group. I could just barely hear the two masked people up ahead talking, it sounded like a rather one-sided conversation. Dusty fell behind for a few moments to get to us.

"Hey, I have a game plan." Dusty started. "I snuck up close enough to overhear the end of their conversation, just a sentence of it."

"What'd they say?" Argus asked.

"They're in a rush to get to 'the heart', and that the lead one feels uneasy," Dusty explained. "And since they're moving so slowly and I'm growing impatient, I was thinking we should give them a scare to speed up the process."

"Done," Carter said, Aura suddenly burning around him as he jetted off. Dusty simply held out his hand and Carter tripped and fell from the golden chains on his legs.

"You're too brash kid, some things require at least a bit of forethought," Dusty said, a small smirk appearing on his face. "Just running at them solo only accomplishes part of what we need, for them to not know how many of us there are."

"Why's that important, seems scarier if they see all of us," Liath added.

"People aren't like Grimm Liath, they care about the number of people and what that number entails," Dusty explained. "If they see two or three of us they'll probably avoid a fight but keep going to this 'heart' and retaliate there, but if they see all of us they'll likely change course to escape and avoid leading a large group there."

"He makes a good point," I said.

"Of course I do, I'm the qualified one here," Dusty said. "I want Liath and Argus to be the chasers, threatening enough to flee from rather than fight but not so much as to make them abort the plan."

"When do you want us to go, sir?" Argus asked.

"Now, and try to act as though you stumbled across them instead of having followed them," Dusty ordered.

"Yes, sir." Argus sped up and Liath did as well, meanwhile, Carter looked a bit downtrodden for not being able to go with them.

* * *

Clara, Mountain tunnels

* * *

I could smell something again, the smell that made me think of annoyance. It was close by, I decided to turn and pursue it but found myself grabbed by the Azoth before I could get anywhere.

"I smell it too, but we have bigger things to handle," Azoth said. "It's probably one of ou-" Another voice suddenly cut over his and running footfalls became audible. The source was from two creatures, one shrouded in a shiny second skin and the other barely armoured. The shiny one pointed to us and shouted.

"There's some more of them, let's get them!" Shiny shouted.

"We don't have time for this, we're still going to the heart," Azoth said. "With the people there we'll subdue these two easily." The pace sped up immensely as we fled from the two creatures further into the twisting tunnels.

* * *

Isaac, Mountain tunnels

* * *

I was lagging behind, not so much that I would lose the group thankfully.

"You know, we might catch up if you set me down." Elith started.

"Not this again, I'm not setting you down while you're still injured," I said, I quickly shifted her a bit and jabbed her neck.

"What was that for, that's my thing!" She complained.

"If you get to do that to me when I'm evasive then I get to do it to you if you're being obstinate," I replied. "Among the few good things my dad taught me was that 'you shouldn't go into a deal where you get anything worth less than what the other person is getting'."

"Smart rule, you can have that right then." She conceded.

"So stop complaining, I'll have to set you down soon anyways," I said.

* * *

Elith, mountain tunnels

* * *

I'd never thought someone could get bored when in the midst of a chase, yet here I was being hurried along and twiddling my thumbs. I checked my wound again to gauge its progress, It was closed enough to where I feel I could probably move and fight slightly unhindered. Wouldn't be a good idea to sprint or fight solo though, need to keep that in mind. The chase continued for 5 minutes before Isaac slowed down, I looked up to see the problem and saw that everyone else had come to a stop.

"They've reached their destination it seems, I want Erik and Carter to rush in first to support Liath and Argus." Dusty whispered. "After that, Ivory and I will run in to provide cover and support."

"What about us?" I asked.

"Keep to the back, defend yourselves as necessary and try to avoid direct fighting," Dusty instructed. "Elith because she's injured and Isaac because we can't leave Elith to fend for herself."

"Hey, I too can fend for myself," I said defensively as Isaac set me down on my feet, I was immediately pained by my wound but managed to keep a straight face.

"I still don't like risks," Dusty said. "I don't want to know what kind of trouble I'll get in for having one of you die on my watch." With that, we proceeded forward in the specified order into the new room, and up ahead I heard Erik's voice sound out.

"Clara?"

 **Author's notes**

 **Everyone talks about how fear can drive us to do awful things, but there's only a handful of sayings about good goals with bad requirements.**


	36. All for a cause

Chapter 36

All for a cause

* * *

Erik, The heart

* * *

The room looked old, it was circular with 12 heavy wooden doors covering the wall periodically. The stone parts of the wall had cave drawings on them depicting various scenes with a person wearing a Grimm mask, like the people we'd been chasing. In the centre was what looked like a throne made seamlessly from bronze and looked as though it was part of the floor. Six other people were in the room, the two that we followed and four more wearing more simplistic Grimm masks. The four new ones all wore simple robes; one was a tall man, another was a short stocky man, the third was a massive man with what looked like claws on his hands, and the last was a short woman with antlers. Now that I could get a closer look, I examined the two we'd followed. The upright one was impossible to examine, every part of them was covered somehow. The second person looked familiar and it took me a moment to realise why, it looked like Clara. She definitely looked a bit different, but the black hair was in the exact same style and she was built the same way, cat ears and all. She even bore the same weapons so it all stacked to be too much of coincidence for me to think it wasn't Clara. But why was she walking on all fours with a Grimm mask on, what was going on here?  
"Clara?" I asked. The person with her turned to face me and quietly examined our group for a moment.  
"Yes, but she's not herself at the moment." They said in an unnerving monotone. "If you leave us be for a mere minute I'll explain."  
"Oh sure, let's trust the shady man in the Grimm mask," Isaac said sarcastically. "I'm sure he'll be nothing but helpful."  
"I assure you we are not your enemy." They continued.  
"Well, now I feel completely safe." Elith joined in.  
"Sarcasm aside, we want explanations now instead of later," Dusty said. "We outnumber you, so I feel we win this argument."  
"Fine, we have time for some things to be explained." They said begrudgingly.  
"Who are you, what's your purpose, what's happened to Clara, and how's it tie into all the things we were sent to investigate." Dusty shot off.  
"I'm Azoth, my purpose here is to bring about the great calm, Clara has no aura and has become like a Grimm in all but form, and we are indeed the cause of all things you were sent about." Azoth listed off quickly. "Now please go, time is of the essence."  
"Not a chance, you either explain properly or we beat you and everyone else at your masquerade party into the ground until we get answers," Dusty growled, raising his voice as he closed his shields into their offensive mode. "So what'll it be you sack of shit, think long and hard." I was slightly taken aback by Dusty's sudden outburst, not that I blamed him for it. It just surprised me that the levelheaded hunter leapt so suddenly to this point, everyone else in our group also seemed taken aback as well.

* * *

The heart

* * *

Azoth quietly tucked his hand into his cloak and released a sigh, and in a slow movement withdrew them. They held weapons now, both strange and unique. In his left hand was a cat o nine tails with the sharp tips made of what seemed to be shards of dust, it was almost mesmerising the way the tips swayed and released a soft glow. In his right was what looked to be some kind of intricate bladed gauntlet, the only unusual part of it is how unnecessarily thick and heavy it looked.  
"Wrong choice," Dusty said menacingly, he instantly broke into a sprint at Azoth with his gauntlets thrusting forward. Everyone else jumped to action immediately afterwards, keeping to their assigned spots. Ivory was the first to inflict any damage, deftly retrieving arrow after arrow from her quiver and firing them in the same motion. She hit with five of her six shots into the chest of the largest masked person, he grunted at the impact and thrust out his hands. The battlefield shook for a moment, knocking those with poor footing to the floor. Dusty fell in his charge but made up for it by tackling Azoth, sending them both to the floor and having a desperate fistfight. Liath hardly faltered from the shaking as he swung his claymore about and slammed its flat side into the chest of a short, masked woman with deer horns, sending her flying into the throne. A tall masked man cooly observed his surroundings and looked at Erik as he swung at Azoth, just as the blow missed he waved his hand and Homicida turned to its whip form, lashing Erik across his back. Azoth managed to push Dusty off himself and raised the cat o nine tails to strike, but found his weapon to be considerably lighter. He looked to see that an arrow fired by Ivory had severed the whip's tendrils.  
"Missing something asshole?" Ivory laughed as she rolled into Liaths shadow.  
"Oh for the love of,,, stop using my shadow, Ivory!" Liath shouted. "IT'S MINE!"  
His request went unanswered, not that he would've heard it. The short and stocky fellow was already preparing to strike. He clapped his hands and a shockwave blasted at Liath, staggering him and making his ears ring. The short woman had no chance to take advantage as Carter rushed in to save his friend, smacking her on the head with a strange looking crowbar. Seemingly tired of taking a beating, the short woman yelled in anger as her body turned into a cloud of ash. The cloud swirled viscously around Liath's head, effectively blinding him.

* * *

Clara, the heart

* * *

These creatures felt familiar, not in the way Azoth did, but in a new and confusing way. I didn't know what to do, would the Azoth be angry if I struck them or was I meant to fight? As the creature with the shield-spike got up and made to strike at Azoth I made the decision, fight. I leapt from my crouched position and landing square on it's back and began slamming my fists into it, to my surprise flames exploded from my hands. I kept up the attack until shield-spike threw me to the ground, I started to get up but an agonising pain burned across my shoulder. I looked to see an arrow, dripping with clear liquid, in my shoulder. I looked to where it came from and saw a snake-eyed girl with a bow.  
"Good night Clara," Snake-eye said. My vision tinged slightly red as I rushed her. "Or not, holy shit." Her eyes widened at my approach as she quickly grabbed another arrow and fired it into my leg, it hurt but I kept going. I began to smell desperation as the girl grabbed one last arrow and shot my other shoulder, it hurt and I started to feel drowsy. I got closer and closer and was almost at snake-eyes throat before I fell to the ground, too tired to move.  
"What on Remnant did they do to you?" Snake-eye said as she looked at the arrows.

* * *

The heart

* * *

There was a pause in combat when Clara stopped moving, but it didn't last long at all. Argus rebooted the fray by charging at the largest man shield first, slamming into the man and causing him to stumble back. Argus didn't let up for a moment, slashing up at the man's face with his sword. The blow was ineffective, but a shimmer across the man's body betrayed that he was out of aura. Argus would have pressed his advantage but was caught in the side by a blast from the short man. The ash cloud around Liaths head reformed into the short woman, she slipped past him and rushed Isaac and Elith. She arrived to find Isaac and three Eliths, the four flashed a grin and they tackled her. Ivory saw an opening as the largest masked man raised a mace to strike the fallen Argus and fired an arrow cleanly into and through the man's throat. Erik had been fighting the taller man for most of the fight but to little avail. The man simply caused Erik's weapon to transform constantly which made it impossible for him to fight properly. His aura was low, half from the man's daggers and half from hitting himself. He was struck in the back by a blast and his aura dissipated, the tall man took the opportunity and thrust with his daggers. His blades impacted but did nothing, Erik's armour had protected him.  
"That is why Argus and I are the smart ones!" Erik shouted as he rolled over and slashed out at the tall man, making contact. Three arrows from Ivory and the man was out of the picture. The short man was swiftly bound by chains and once that was done all that remained was Azoth.

* * *

Isaac, The heart

* * *

We all stared Azoth down, waiting for them to attack. Seconds passed, then minutes, and finally, he dropped his gauntlet.  
"You've brought ruin to the future, or rather you've doomed it to be unchanging," Azoth muttered. "But you are forgiven, you didn't understand and did what made sense in your circumstance." He stumbled over to one of the paintings on the wall and pressed down on the depiction of the mask. One of the wooden doors opened, behind it stood a Beowolf with icy blue eyes, it stood stock still as it received no orders from Clara. I got what this meant immediately and shot the beast in the head with my Knixes.

* * *

Clara, The heart

* * *

The first thing I felt was pain, I opened my eyes to see three arrows being pushed out of my shoulders and leg. Then I felt relieved as the wounds closed, but then disorientation came. I pulled myself up to immediately keel over as I threw up onto the ground. I felt much better after that, enough to look up and get my bearings.  
"Clara!" A familiar voice said I felt myself being picked up in one of Dusty's giant hugs. I weakly hugged him back, I felt more people join the hug.  
"As much as I dread offending your group more than I have, I have some parting business to attend to. This was all for a cause and I need to make sure that my efforts have a chance of not being wasted." I heard the monotone voice of my captor say. "I need Clara to be here with me, no funny business or ill will I promise." After some hesitation my friends helped me over to him, he had an untamed Beowolf next to him.  
"What, what more do you want," I muttered.  
"We'd waste time working with words, after I use my semblance on this creature I need you to do the same to me," Azoth explained. "You need not use much, just do a little and then tear it from me." With that he placed his hand on the beast, he began convulsing shortly after. I reached out and placed my hand on him and the convulsions stopped, I flowed a bit of aura to him. I was suddenly overcome with a flood of thoughts, images, memories, and feelings. It was all so much and I was hardly able to take back my aura, as I did I saw Azoth collapse. Then I blacked out.

* * *

Elith, The heart

* * *

After Clara had fallen over we examined the battlefield, Azoth was dead and the sounds of howls and roars echoing through the cavern told us we were not the only ones aware of this fact. Haste entering our actions we checked our felled opponents and identified them as being members of the council, not much of a surprise to me since Coal was wrapped up in this. We opened the wooden doors and eliminated the remaining Grimm, for the sake of restoring all of Clara's aura. Behind the centre one, we found Dakota, scared and pacing but immediately excited and relieved at the sight of us. Upon seeing Clara he rushed over and started to nuzzle her and trying to make sure she was alright. Once he realised she was only unconscious he bit the back of her shirt and started carrying her, then he looked at us expectantly.  
"Let's get out of here, no need to stay and find out how many Grimm this guy had," Dusty ordered. With that we returned to the tunnels, Isaac continued to help me along since it still hurt a little to walk and I'd received a few new injuries from our scuffle. He fussed over me the whole way to Carvail, constantly making sure I was fine and that my wounds were healing. I started to tell him to shut up and stop worrying about me, but then I stopped myself. Maybe I should stop complaining about good things I have, I do enough of that already. I should just appreciate that the partner I got paired with actually gives a damn about me, scratch that, that I got paired with a whole team that actually gives a damn about me. By the time we reached Carvail main my wounds had fully healed and I was free of his incessant worrying. We all walked into the inn, Dusty set Clara down on one of the chairs and we started to wait for her to awake.  
 **Author's notes  
Procrastination is fun, right?**


	37. Journalism

Chapter 37

Journalism

Azoth, The mountain

"Best to have a fresh memory of this, in case things go awry today," I muttered to myself, removing the leather bound journal from my cloak. "If it comes to her seeing this I don't want memories of the important parts being fuzzy." I opened up the journal the journal and looked to its first entry.

Entry 1

How long had I been here, avoiding the gaze of the townspeople who would judge me for what I'd become? How long had I spent only in the company of Grimm, learning how they behave in their natural state without my interference or the presence of entirely human or Faunus creatures. When I'd staggered into the tunnels of this mountain I'd been met with a small group of Grimm who didn't like the scraps of aura left in me or my Grimm. I manage to overpower the beasts, and instead of running or fighting to the death they stopped entirely and began to regard us with little interest. It was as though it was some form of a test rather than an attempt on my life, were they trying to gauge my strength or trying to figure out a position for me on the pecking order? I experience similar introductions to all other Grimm in the mountain, a fight followed by my victory and then this sudden acceptance. It has been so strange to see these horrid monsters unbound and yet so calm, so passive. I recently realised what a unique opportunity I had here, to examine the side of Grimm that was not focused on slaughter, so I've decided to begin a journal to keep notes of this.

Entry 4

I think it's been two weeks now since the last entry, it's impossible to tell time in these tunnels, I've been so caught up in my work that I've been forgetting to write. For the sake of understanding it, I spent some more time in the strange aura-less state that roped me into this. My irises have become fully red and I can swear that I see a bit of orange in my pupils, these changes have less importance than what I intend to write about today. Now that I've spent more time in this state I've noticed that the Grimm are ignoring me less and actually interacting with me, interaction is a strong term actually, they have merely stopped giving me a wide berth and only looking at me when I get too close. They must associate me more closely with being Grimm than human now, another step to help me understand them. I'm starting to think that understanding their docile behaviour itself is less important than understanding how to get them to this point. I feel like if I can manipulate their pack mentality enough to put myself as 'pack leader', for lack of a better word, I could force them to treat others as they treat me. If I could just figure that out, couldn't I solve so many problems?

Entry 38

Has my mind been altered by my change or has my isolation and obsession with my study distracted me so much, because I swear I could not have been hidden in these mountains for longer than four months? Regardless of how long I feel I was in there, I dared a trip into the village to get supplies I missed dearly, like non-scavenged food. I asked someone for the date to find that two years had passed since I've entered the mountain, how could this time felt so short to me? This event, although surprising and confusing, is a less interesting development than the second thing that happened. I did not return to the mountain alone today. When I returned to the mountain on a Beowolf that I'd left a little ways outside town, I was spotted by a young hunter. He stalked me to the mountain to investigate and found himself ambushed by Grimm not long after entering the mountain, an event he was fortunate I heard. I took some of my Grimm to see what was going on, when I saw this man being set upon by Grimm I noticed something unpleasant about my thought process. I didn't have any malicious thoughts about him, but I didn't feel much of anything for the position he was in, as though his fate would carry little relevance to me. Regardless of my strange indifference, I did see this as an opportunity to test my theory that I could make Grimm treat others like they treat me.

I didn't want interference from the man himself and waited until his aura broke and he took a crippling blow. Once he was unable to fight, I rushed in and began to force the other Grimm off him. Not sure how to communicate that he was not to be struck, I simply circled around him and daring the others to try and strike him. One attempted and I had to kill him, two more of them tried but backed off before it came to that. The crowd eventually backed off with sullen growls and finally dispersed, leaving me alone with the intruder. The young hunter was looking up at me with an awestruck expression, mixed with a hint of fear and confusion. We talked whilst he waited to heal, got to know each other for a bit. The man's name was Coal, he lived alone in the village below. He's an interesting character; he's kind, curious, and oddly quick to accept the bizarre circumstance he's currently in. He has not asked how I saved him nor how I myself have received this treatment from the Grimm. If he ever returns to this mountain, perhaps I shall get to know him better then.

Entry 43

Coal has been returning more and more frequently, bearing gifts that I originally thought of as being thanks for saving his life. But I discovered the truth of these gestures when I discovered a new part of Coal earlier today, that he is quite a religious man. He brought two friends with him today, both of which I had to teach the Grimm not to strike, and introduced them to me. He took me aside to explain why he'd brought them, and what he believed. He believed me to be some kind of God-given bridge between Grimm and mankind, that I had some divine purpose to disclose when I choose. For a moment I thought him to be mad, I was simply a combat school dropout from Vacuo who immigrated from there after doing something I regretted. Then I realised that, while false, his beliefs were useful to me and not entirely ridiculous if seen from another's perspective. Because of this, I've taken his beliefs in stride and 'converted' his friends to my cause. I really am beginning to become indebted to Coal, he not only proved my cause was possible but is becoming a driving force towards its completion.

Entry 50

I've finally found a more religious sounding name for my goal, the great calm seems fitting enough. Because the goal itself is to make the two main colliding forces of this world could coexist calmly, albeit carefully. Alongside this, I feel the need to be more mysterious and enigmatic towards my to-be followers. I need something to conceal my face to make me less personal and more, strange and otherworldly. I think I have an idea as to what to do.

I felt no need to start a new entry, it's the same day I think. I've carved myself an elaborate mask of wood in the visage of a Grimm, I've never had a great talent for wood carving but I feel this will do the job.

Entry 87

Faces and names pass through my mountain every day, through Coal and his friends I've been introduced to so many people and I can only properly identify so many of them. I've picked up a system to keep the Grimm from striking newcomers, I've had all my followers wear simple identical Grimm masks. Once the Grimm got accustomed to this marker of my protected followers I began having newcomers wear these as they entered the mountain, as I'd hoped they did not attack them and presumed them to be under my protection. Sometimes I wonder how the Grimm feel about what I've done, do they resent me for using fear to control them or can they not even feel such things? Such things are aside from the point, my plan's working and I couldn't be happier. It's gotten less lonely here, some people have even elected to stay at the mountain as they had nowhere else to be. Ever since they've moved in I've noticed some changes, my guests have begun working to make the place more navigable and livable. Adding doors to some branchless sections to make rooms of them, they say they're working on a special room for me.

Entry 137

Another two years gone by and much done within them, my followers made me a throne room with murals of me across it. Sealed chambers line the wall with the depictions of my masks on the murals being triggers to open them. I've nothing to place in the chambers but feel I may come up with a use someday. This gift from my followers is not all of why I'm writing this entry, I have a new task to undertake. I want to see how far being in my aura-less state can take me without me losing myself, perhaps if I spend long enough in that state I can reach some kind of new authority with the Grimm. I'll give all my aura to a Grimm and wait a day, then Coal will kill it and ask me if I want to stop. This process will repeat till I feel it necessary to stop immediately, I hope I'll be able to tell.

Entry 138

Coal tells me I've spent twelve days in the process, I've called it to a halt now. I stopped because I feel on the edge of, something, something dark and vile that I'll have no part in. I should note the ways I feel and look different after my experience, for the sake of recording it. On my cheek and forehead, I've noticed small sections of a pure white carapace have grown, not unlike the kind that the Grimm have upon their face. My eyes now burn entirely like those of a Grimm, all red except for the orange centres. But how I feel and how I perceive the world has changed the most in my opinion, in a way I don't think I would've liked. No matter how I try, I can't feel positively nor negatively about anything anymore, it's like I'm forced to analyse everything solely for its face value with emotion playing no role. I don't feel happy or sad anymore, no rush from this new discovery and no sadness for how I've changed. My mind sees the change as interesting and useful for furthering the beliefs of my followers, I don't think of it any other way.

Entry 143

The cause has run into a problem, someone abandoned us because they 'felt like what was being done here was evil disguised as good.' I would've let him leave, he was not vital and if he wanted to believe that peace was evil then let him do so. However, he did not simply leave, He went to town and told a few people about us before he left. These few people do not understand our cause and behaved hostile to the messenger I sent to explain, their leaving town get help to crush our 'vile' cult. I fear that their misunderstandings could ruin all we've worked towards, something I can't allow.

Entry 144

It is done, I sent a Coal and a few Grimm to kill the poor men who knew too much. Once they were dead we took the bodies back to the mountain and placed them on staged Grimm attack sites along Carvails roads, one body per day. Civilians would stumble across these and report them to the guards, most of whom are of my cult, and the guard would investigate the sites then clean them up. Only one more body to be rid of, then this bump will be behind us and the great calm can be pursued once again.

Entry 145

Another problem has been encountered, one of the few unconverted guards stumbled one of our staged fights. This 'Pewter', as Coal called him, took it upon himself to investigate the site. He'd been talking with other guards about how something didn't feel right to him about all these recent Grimm attacks, so when the Grimm I set to watch the attack site saw this I made all but the one I had under my control go to attack. In case he survived I sent the controlled Grimm to go fetch one of my guards to go talk to Pewter and see what, if anything, he'd found out. The Grimm found Coal and brought him back, he found Pewter to be continuing his investigation with not even a scratch on him. After inquiring after it, Pewter was evasive about what he learned and insisted he document it before telling. After discussing what he may have found for a bit, Coal admitted what he thought it may be. The body was that of the one person the Grimm I sent couldn't handle, Coal had helped and left a bullet wound in them. We have to stop this 'Pewter character', whatever he plans to do can't be good.

Entry 147

Pewter has purchased equipment to boost the CCTS signal, who does he plan to contact? If he succeeds in getting outside help we need to make his death look like a Grimm attack as well, just in case.

Entry 148

We sent Grimm to Pewters house, carved a trail through his traps and broke into his house. He looked to me as though he was just getting off a broadcaster, he'd managed to contact someone. Before I was able to strike him he took his sword and plunged it into his chest, this was unexpected. After putting thought into it, I've realised how clever he was in doing that. Now when people investigate his home they'll find all this evidence to a Grimm attack, but find a completely different fate. He knew he'd die so he died on his own terms.

Entry 150

I'd almost forgotten about Pewter or the Grimm attacks, funny how such large events hardly bother me. Should I not feel pity or regret that these people had to die, even if it pushed to a goal of peace? Yet whenever I think of the deaths I've caused I can only think of them as necessary actions to push the cause forwards. I'm not proud of the cleverness of the cover up, nor am I ashamed of what I've done. Would I have been disappointed with what I've become or would I see it as a necessary evil? Regardless of what the old me thinks, it's too late to change it and all that matters is the now.

Entry 152

It seems Pewter's call has gone through. Five hunters have arrived, armed and asking about Pewter and Grimm attacks. I can probably rid myself of them, but something in the reports of them interests me greatly. A cat eared Faunus from this group of hunters arrived in town mounting an Ursa and accompanied by a white Beowolf, what are the odds that all this misfortune has brought someone like me here. My mind was already trying to place her in one of two categories, she may cause my followers to lose faith in me or think I'm a false god while on the other hand of the spectrum I could frame her as being support sent to us in our dire time. We'll simply have to see how this plays out.

"And I suppose you know how the rest of it plays out, don't you?" I said calmly. "If you're seeing all this then I'm dead and tonight's move collapsed what I've worked towards." I heaved a long sigh as I prepared to say the next part of my speech. "It's probably for the best that I'm gone, no good cause deserves the wrongs I've done for it under it. Nor should any cause be led by someone who cannot feel anything, no good comes from a one-track mind. I'm not asking you to take over the cult, nor am I asking you to continue my cause, I just want you to understand the how and the why. I suppose this is a confession, a warning and a goodbye." I paused as I tucked the book into my cloak and got up. "The first warning is that it's not worth the reward to spend more than a day in the aura-less state. The second is that people in town likely won't have the news of my death, so when they start being hostile just say 'He's found a new calm'.

Clara, Inn

I got up with a jolt to see the innkeeper holding a shotgun at my friends who were all turned towards me.

"He's found a new calm!" I suddenly shouted at her, she immediately dropped the shotgun and a crestfallen look spread across her face. My friends looked at me in confusion but took the sudden exclamation in stride. "We should probably get out of here quickly, I don't feel up to saying that five hundred times."

"The Bullhead will be here soon, I told them to check up on us every few days seeing as we can't call them," Dusty explained. "But first I want to know what happened to you."

"I'll explain on the way to the bullhead," I replied.

Elith, Bullhead

Clara explained everything to us; what had happened in the mountain, the strange memory transfer she'd gone through, and how she still felt sick. After she mentioned the journal, Ivory procured it from her pocket. She'd looted the bodies of the battlefield before we left, an impressive feat with how quickly we'd left. She was somewhat quiet for most of the ride, but towards the end, she started hugging everyone. She was clearly worn out and in horrible condition, we needed to get her to the dorm soon or I think she'll just collapse. We arrived at Beacon at night, so we said our goodbyes to Dusty and parted ways to go to our dorm.

 **Author's notes**

 **Four intense pages of Azoth reading a journal.**


	38. Avoidance

Chapter 38

Avoidance

* * *

Clara, EICE dorm

* * *

People called me 'Grimm girl' back in Vacuo just for my semblance, how'll people respond to me having some of the looks too? With the black as night hair and the crimson colour on my irises, I had this sinister look to me now, and there were more subtle differences as well. I felt hardier and I could definitely tell that some rapid muscle growth had taken place across my body, and then there were the scents. No matter where in the room I was, I could smell frustration, envy, fear, and so many other feelings wafting in through the crack under our door. Everyone had gone to class already thankfully, I'd opted to stay in because I 'felt sick' and I didn't want anyone to see me like this. I'd already skimmed through Azoth's journal today and found nothing useful on toning down these effects, no way to reverse them or cover up the scents. The hair I'm sure I could dye, but with how quick my hair grows I don't think that's a viable option. I'd tried stuffing tissue paper into my nose but it failed to block the smell to any degree, making me think I was perceiving it through some other method. I was suddenly snapped out of my contemplation by a knocking at the door, I looked at my alarm clock and saw it was lunch time. Who would come to our dorm during lunch and why today, I'd told my friends that if anyone asked where I was that I was sick and didn't want to be disturbed? I went up to the door and peered through the peephole to see Yang outside the door twiddling her thumbs, of course it would be Yang who'd come check despite the clear cut instructions.

"Hey Yang," I said, faking the best weak voice I could. "Could you come back later, I just need some rest right now."

"Are you sure you want to be alone?" Yang asked. "I brought you some food for you."

"I'm not very hungry, thanks for the thought, and I'm sure I just need to lay in silence for a bit," I assured her.

"Alright, I'll come back later then." I heard her walking away after that, I let out a small sigh of relief. I caught a mixed scent of worry and annoyance. I would feel the same in her position.

Of all people to see me like this Yang was the worst possible option, I didn't want to know how she'd respond to this. I returned my thoughts to the issue of covering up my new traits, perhaps I could wear coloured contacts and pretend that I've dyed my hair black? I opened up my dorm window to let in a breeze as I headed to the bathroom, I closed the bathroom door behind me and went to the mirror. While I'd planned on moping in front of it for a few minutes, life had other plans it seemed as a sudden clunk sounded in the dorm room.

"Clara, sick or not I want to see you and catch up." Yang's voice sounded from the dorm, there was a pause before she suddenly spoke in a confused tone. "Where'd you go?"

"How'd you even get in here Yang?" I asked, almost forgetting to add the weakness to my voice.

"The window." She said simply. I decided to save myself the headache of trying to pry from her how she had gotten from the door to the window in such a short span of time.

"You are one of the most annoyingly persistent people I know, are you aware of that?" I complained to her.

"One of the most?" She asked, mock-hurt in her voice. "I thought I was the only one, or at least the most."

"To be the most annoyingly persistent you have to be a proper blend of Annoying and persistent, you're mostly persistent." I found myself explaining, I suddenly realised that I'd stopped using a weak voice and quick wit wasn't exactly the response you'd get from a weary sick person, I'd always been awful at acting and lying. Yang had, obviously, caught on to my ruse and I heard her shuffle around in the room for a bit before speaking again.

"Well you're obviously not sick, so why are you avoiding me?" Yang asked the mock-hurt beginning to sound slightly more real.

"I'm not avoiding you, I'm avoiding everyone if that makes you feel better," I explained.

"Nope, just more concerned." She said. "Whatever the issue is I'm sure it's no call to hide in your dorm all day." I hesitated, while it was very much a reason to lock up in my dorm I couldn't just stay in here forever. I'd have to face the issue sooner or later, it won't be any better or worse to show it now would it? I opened the bathroom door to see Yang sitting criss-cross on the floor, she looked up at me and surprise flicked across her face for a moment before she regained composure.

"Black hair suits you, and your eyes look ten times more kick-ass." Yang shot off. My face reddened a bit, of all things I'd anticipated compliments had most definitely not been one of them. Of course, what else should I expect from my girlfriend?

* * *

Erik, Lunchroom

* * *

Our lunch table was added to today by team CRMS and team LIAC, all of us exchanging stories about our missions. Apparently, team RWBY had failed to stop a plot to break Grimm into Vale via tunnels leading to an abandoned city but had assisted in deterring said Grimm after they reached Vail. I was just glad Red was intact after being kidnapped by the white fang and that anarchist Torchwick. It was fortunate. Team CRMS had gone on a mission to hunt down a single sea serpent Grimm that had turned out to be a small pack of sea serpent Grimm.

"It's an easy mistake really, I mean when you see a serpent poke its head out of the water and start spitting ball lightning at your ship you don't bother to stop and see how many friends it has." Sage joked.

"What about your team Erik, what'd you guys run into?" Cadet asked.

"Something that we should've steered clear of," Elith said simply, absently tracing a finger along her chest where she'd been cut open.

"It's a confusing story, but I'll tell you what I can," I said simply. I got straight to recounting the events at Carvail, leaving out Clara's time in the mountain so she could explain that when she wanted to. As I reached the point when we were rushing into the heart of the mountain I heard footsteps behind me, I turned to see that it was Yang and Clara. Clara looked, to say the least about the socially anxious Faunus, very much like her favourite location in the world was any spot that was not here. There were some people looking at her new appearance with varying degrees of surprise, confusion, and even fear etched into their faces. Most people turned their heads back to their food after receiving a death glare from Yang, as any rational person would in my opinion.

They both sat down in their spots and began eating. After Clara finished wolfing down her food she just looked up at everyone silently. I began to continue recounting the story but she interrupted suddenly by holding up her hand and clearing her throat.

"I suppose the Goliath in the room should be addressed for what happens next in the story to make any sense at all." She said, with that, she explained what had occurred in the mountain to her and why she'd been changed like she had, she was less detailed than she'd been on the bullhead probably because it was unnecessary details.

"You guys sure went through one hell of a shitstorm didn't you?" Robin said with that booming laugh of hers.

"Shitstorms one word for it, we could've picked any other mission and avoided running into a cult that labelled Clara as a false god," Isaac said. "You know what's funny? Clara was the only one who voted against picking that mission."

"You're right, the odds there are kind of hilarious," Nora commented.

"Yeah, the odds are hilarious but the situation they caused was Grimm." Yang gave a small pause for the sheer physical pain her pun had inflicted upon us to set in before saying. "Too soon?"

* * *

Isaac, duellingclassroom

* * *

was having difficulty sleeping so I'd come to the stage in here to practice some new techniques that had popped into my head recently while my dad cheered me on in his own definitely-not-cheering-me-on way.

 _"By the blood of that dog eared mutt Carth, how did you kill me with such piss-poor form."_ He jeered.

"She was a wolf faunus named Hearth, first off, and secondly don't insult my form when I learned everything about knife work from you," I replied as I attempted to hamstring an imaginary foe with one knife while slashing the other out to stop any attacks coming at my exposed back.

 _"You left your arse open, no beast will have the respect to not hit you down there."_ He continued.

"I'm not practising to fight beasts," I said simply, his crimson form raised an eyebrow. "I'm practising for the Vytal Festival."

 _"You mean that shindig where they make kids beat the ever loving shit out of each other?"_ He asked.

"Yeah, that one," I said simply as his form dissipated.

"Talking to your dad again I see." Elith's voice sounded from behind me.

"Somebody's up late," I said. "What brings you down here."

"First off, that's hypocritical, and secondly I came down here because at this point I'm afraid any of us going anywhere could cause a sudden manhunt to ensue," Elith replied. "Though I did come for another reason, you promised you'd tell me what you saw in the illusion when we got back." Damnit, I had made that promise, hadn't I? I sat down on the edge of the duelling platform and patted the spot next to me, Elith sat down there and looked expectantly at me.

"So I told you about what my dad did for a living and what happened in Vale to make me kill him, right?" I asked.

"Yeah, you were pretty vague about what happened but you gave me the general idea," Elith said.

"Well, this is the story of what happened before I fled to Vale from Vacuo," I said, mentally running through and preparing myself for the story.

I rambled on about Hearth for a bit; how we'd met, what she was like, and what our relationship had been like. Then I went on to when my dad had been near combat school one day and had spied me and Hearth sitting in the shade beside the school, and how he'd interrogated me afterwards. Then I explained how my dad had gone about killing her and leaving pieces that didn't prove, but made it seem as though, I had been the culprit. As much as it pained me to retell that particular piece of information, it did feel much better to know that there was someone I bore no secrets with. I must've looked sadder than I thought because Elith hugged me suddenly, I hugged her back and we stayed like that for a fleeting moment before she leaned back.

"I'm appalled by what your father did, I'm so sorry you had to go through all that." She said quietly. "I can't imagine-" She trailed off, leaving me to wonder what exactly she can't imagine.

"I'm eager for a change of subject, so now I'm going to pry into your personal life," I said. "Let's see how Ms Inquisitor likes being the inquisitee."

"That's not a word, but go ahead seeing as it's only fair," I said.

"Why do you pry for information like you do, trying to force people around you to divulge truth even if it makes them uncomfortable?" I asked.

"I have a bit of an obsession with the truth, I was young when I found some files in my dad's room on some shady things my dad's business did and that led me to realise that even the kindest-seeming people could just be playing pretend," Elith explained. "That event gave me two things; my unwillingness to be like my dad or the majority of my family in any way, and my firm belief that every detail you can know about those around you is important since one detail can completely change who they are."

"You sound like you've practised that tirade before." I joked.

"You're not wrong." She replied.

Elith, EICE dorm

Isaac and I talked for a while longer and practised some of our team attacks before returning to the dorm, both of us tired enough to sleep properly. When we entered the dorm we found Erik was still awake and reading a book, he glanced up at us and gave a short wave.

"Where were you two?" He asked.

"Dueling room, practising for the Vytal Festival," Isaac replied. Erik didn't ask any more questions as we went over to our beds, I rolled onto my sheets and started thinking about the new information I'd learned tonight. It's one awful thing to kill your own father regardless of what they'd done, it was a whole new level to have someone you love murdered and be blamed for it. I found that the more I concerned myself with his troubles the more I felt a weird disposition towards him wriggle to the surface, it was unfamiliar but not bad. I fell asleep before more thought could be put into it.

 **Author's notes**

 **I'm back baby! From an entertaining week in Seattle that is, and what a week it was.**


	39. Amity

Chapter 39

Amity

Isaac, dorm roof

I hurried up the stairs leading to the roof, I wanted a good view of the stadium arriving. I was sure no one else would be up there, it was early morning and I was headed to a harder to find part of the roof. I wanted my first sight of the mechanical marvel to be uninterrupted and bereft of dramatic and exaggerated gasps. I pushed open the door leading to the wolf and saw that someone had beaten me to the spot, it took me a second to realise who they were since they had a hoodie on but the design and the words 'casual fashion' on the front gave it away.

"How did you even-" I started.

"Beat you here?" She prompted. "Easy, I slept up here because I knew this was a good spot clear of obnoxious people, then you showed up." It was very difficult sometimes to tell when Elith said things jokingly or seriously.

"Seriously?" Was all I could spill out of my mouth, It was supposed to have gotten pretty cold last night and I didn't see any blankets up here. "How did you not freeze to death?"

"I'm from Atlas, I've had worse." She said with a shrug.

"You're wearing shorts and no socks," I said, dumbfounded. She looked at me expectantly as though she thought I had more to say and those were just small points. This moment of silence went on for a few seconds before I just sighed and sat down on the roof next to her. Both of us understanding why we'd chosen this part of the roof to wait, stayed dead silent as we watched the horizon. Surprisingly it was Elith who broke this unspoken pact of silence.

Elith, dorm roof

"I bet you 50 lien the arena looks smaller than you expect," I claimed, I'm not sure why but I didn't feel like sitting around quietly anymore.

"50 lien says it looks bigger than you expect." He retorted.

"How are we going to gauge this so neither of us lies?" I asked. he responded by pointing towards a mountain in the distance.

"Just frame how large you think it'll be once it's parallel to that, we'll take a picture for reference and then wait." He explained. We both did so, using our hands to indicate what we expected and then returned to our silent waiting. I shifted uncomfortably for a bit, which was weird to me because I'd been comfortable sitting here up until now. I looked to see if Isaac was shifting, he wasn't, in fact, I would've guessed he was sleeping if he didn't have one eye cracked open. He didn't notice me looking it seemed, so I kept on and looked for what I'd been noticing ever since he told me the story about Hearth and his family. Whenever he was relaxed or away from the scrutiny of others he got a weird look about him, his gaze got unfocused and his face became neutral. He didn't look entirely sad or contemplative like this, he just kind of looked empty. Was the expression only visible because of what I knew now or was it something new? Regardless of the answer I didn't like the way it looked. It was disconcerting and I felt the urge to fix it, even though I have no idea if there is something to fix. I almost found myself asking him why he looked like that but then he stirred and pointed at the horizon.

"If you're done staring at me, I think that's Amity in the distance." Isaac teased.

Erik, courtyard

Clara and I got outside just in time to see Amity come to rest. The colossal structure was hanging in the air just a short distance away from beacon. I'm sure if Isaac were here he'd be giving us this huge lecture on the inner machinations of Amity and how impressive of an engineering feat it was. As if on cue, I heard Isaac's voice behind me.

"Fine, here's your 50." He was saying angrily. "I thought that mountain was closer than it looked." His eyes lit on us and he ran up to us.

"Where were you two, we were late getting out here because we were searching for you," I said.

"We went to see it from the best view," Elith explained.

"Why didn't you invite us, could've saved us some time and gotten us a view," Clara complained.

"No one else being there was the whole reason we went to the spot," Isaac explained. "It ruins the point when you invite people." Clara raised an eyebrow at what he said but didn't continue asking questions. As we talked team CRMS came up to us, Robin spoke up first.

"That's a bit risque, people might talk." She joked.

"Eavesdropper," Elith muttered.

"I get that a lot, I just have good ears," Robin said.

"Can someone explain what the word risque means?" Isaac asked.

Clara, festival grounds

Team CRMS stuck with us as we walked around the stalls that had been set up for the festival, sharing small talk and stories. I was too preoccupied with all of the sounds and smells, it was going to take a while to get used to these heightened senses. At least I couldn't smell many emotions anywhere, people seemed pretty happy here. I almost felt relaxed as we walked, nobody seemed to be paying me or my appearance any mind which was good. Of course, it was just as I thought about this that I spotted the worst people I could imagine running into right now, Jade Eave. I double checked in the hopes that I was wrong; but between the perfect bronze skin, dusty brown hair, impeccable looks, and hazel green eyes, there was no mistaking it. I want to say she's the worst person I've ever met, but I know there are worse people and that she's good at heart, at least that's what I tell myself. We became fast friends after meeting, that lasted three years before she figured out I liked girls. We didn't talk for some time after that, she no longer liked me but at least she didn't hate me. That fact changed, I'm not entirely sure why even now, she started harassing me along with new friends whom I blamed for her change. It only got worse after I found my semblance, I'm pretty sure she's the one who invented the name 'Grimm girl' for me. And here she was strolling by with three people I presumed to be her teammates, two girls and a guy. I hid behind Robin but I was mere moments too late as I heard her clear voice ring out.

"Hey, I heard you turned up at Beacon." She said, her voice deceptively friendly as always. It was a vague enough statement that I pretended like it was directed to someone else. "Oh come on, don't ignore me like that Clara." I halted at that, ever since 'Grimm girl' had become my moniker she'd never called me my actual name, had she changed?

"Jade?" I asked tentatively as I turned to face her. She made quick strides and was right up in front of me in moments. "How have you been?"

"I knew that would get your attention, good to see you again." A flicker of surprise went across her face as she seemed to only now notice my new features. "Looks like beacons letting you shine your true colours a bit more." The friendliness was bleeding out of her tone by the second, of course it was a trick.

"Who is this girl." Her male teammate asked.

"Oh come on Spring, you're telling me you can't recognize Grimm Girl?" Jade asked. I winced a bit at that name. "Honestly." At this point, my friends noticed I'd stopped and they came back.

"Hi, I'm Clara's team leader Erik!" Erik opened. "Are you friends of Clara?"

"No, not friends," Jade answered. "It's a personal goal of mine to not befriend demons."

"Don't say that, there's no call for rudeness," Isaac interjected, Jade's eyes lit upon him and a cruel grin spread on her face.

"Oh, that's just priceless." Jade laughed. "Grimm girl lands on a team with the second most screwed up kid in combat school, Isaac Blythe."

"Shit," Isaac muttered to himself, he did not seem pleased at being recognized.

"So, is your family making an exception for Clara since she's as much like the Grimm as them?" Jade asked.

"Or is it another waiting game like with Hearth?" One of the girls piped in. I saw Isaac clench his fists and drift his hands down to his knixes, he very suddenly reeked of anger. As much as I wanted to draw my own weapons I knew it would not be wise to start something here, so I went to stop Isaac but Elith beat me to it.

"Isaac, if we attack first we look like the assholes." She said plainly. "And you seem a bit more like what they're talking about." Isaac calmed down, slightly.

"You're right." He said as he took a deep breath and backed up. Elith and Erik started walking off with him, I lingered a moment before walking away followed by the stench of disappointment wafting in from behind me.

"Who was that?" Erik asked.

"An old friend?" I said.

"Do you mean that in the literal sense or in the cool person meaning of 'old enemy'?" Isaac pondered.

"Literal," I said simply.

"Ouch," Elith muttered.

 **Author's notes**

 **ris·qué**

 **riˈskā/**

 **adjective**

 **slightly indecent or liable to shock, especially by being sexually suggestive.**


	40. Prep

Chapter 40

Prep

* * *

Erik, EICE dorm

* * *

I woke to the sounds of cracking dust, a sound that's easy to differentiate from glass now that I've been around Elith for so long. I opened my eyes to see where it came from to see Elith leaning over her bed with a red haze floating in the air before her.

"What are yo-" I started.

"Shhh." She hissed. "I need to focus." I got up to look at what she was doing and saw she had her 'casual fashion' hoodie on the bed and the red haze was fire dust hanging in the air, portions of the cloud seemed to be settling into the hoodie along the red parts of its design. Isn't weaving just a little bit dangerous to do in the middle of our dorm, especially with fire dust? I watched as she carefully wove different kinds of dust into the hoodie, matching up dust to the appropriate colours on the hoodie. Once she was done she turned to me.

"I swear that is the most tedious process I've ever had to go through." She said simply. "But it's worth it to keep my hands free during the fights." She flicked her wrist and a small cloud of Frost went into the air for example.

"Have you thought about how often you'll have to recharge it though?" I commented.

"Of course I have, that's why I'll only use this for more minor tricks." She explained. My curiosity satisfied I left the dorm and looked for something to do, so I headed to the courtyard.

I laid down on the grass and looked at Amity Stadium, thinking through attack strategies and methods to counter the unknown threats we may face while we were in there. Just as I was beginning to consider which of us would go into the doubles round I heard some people walking by. I looked to see a grey haired punk looking kid walking with a girl with pale green hair and red eyes, they were walking around flitting their heads back and forth like they were searching for something. I'd never seen them before so I assumed they were visiting students, which made my paranoia kick up again. What if they worked for my mom, what if my bounty was more known than I thought, were they from Mistral, are they looking for me, have they noticed me staring? All of these irrational thoughts sped through my head, but I quelled them because they were highly unlikely. Then the grey haired boy spotted me and I swear I saw a flicker of recognition flit across his face. Well, maybe my fears are entirely justified. The pair moved over to me and the green haired girl waved, I waved back uncomfortably.

"Hello, I'm Emerald and this is Mercury." She said with a smile. I felt tempted to lie about my name, but there were too many things that could blow that.

"I'm Erik," I said, making a split decision to throw in the last name. "Erik Lynn." The slightest flicker of confusion flit across Emeralds face, not notable enough for me to know I hadn't imagined it.

"Nice to meet you, Erik," Mercury added. "Where are you from, you don't look like you're from Vale."

"Alnan, a small town near in-between Vacuo and Vale." I lied. "You?"

"Mistral." He replied, this did not alleviate my fears.

"So wha-" Whatever Emerald was asking was cut off by a blur of red knocking me into the ground.

"Erik, we're headed down to the fair grounds come on," Ruby said quickly, grabbing me by the arm and dragging me off to freedom from that encounter.

* * *

Elith, festival grounds

* * *

I wasn't very interested in the fair, it was crowded and none of the stands looked interesting. However, it was still enjoyable to be around my friends, so that was worth something at least. As our roving group took a rest from walking my scroll start buzzing intensely. I picked it up and sighed at the name that confronted me, 'Dad', I reluctantly answered.

"What?" I ask harshly.

" _Don't take that tone."_ He growled. " _I'd expect that if you're as smart as you claim you'd know 'what'."_

"Well you expect a lot of things from me and get disappointed, don't you?" I retorted.

" _Having you pursue being a huntress is bad enough for my name, I don't want you broadcasted to the four kingdoms doing fights like some common animal."_ He explained. " _I order you to withdraw from the match."_

"But it's so fun to smudge your precious name with dirt though, I don't want to withdraw," I said, faking a whiny voice.

" _If you don't withdraw I'm cutting off finances for you."_ He threatened.

"You don't even fund my education here, and I don't use your money in the first place." I countered. "I'm pretty sure I lost that card ages ago, try again." I was feeling more confident than usual today, usually, my dad could scare me a bit but not now. I was done, I was far away, and there was nothing to fear from him.

" _If you do not comply, and I see our name go on the television, I can and will forbid you from coming home."_ He continued. This made me hesitate for a moment and gauge the win-loss ratio of this, I would lose my room and ready access to Mom and Sparrow but I would finally be wholly free of my Dad.

"No, I won't withdraw," I said confidently. "You've gone from having little sway to no sway, you're out of cards Dad." I heard the start of a frustrated shout as I ended the call. I looked to my left to see Clara staring at me, had she heard the conversation with her improved ears?

"What?" I asked.

"Is that what it's like at home? if so I completely understand why you left now." She said

"Yep, I may have a more wealthy and comfortable upbringing, but I sure didn't have a pleasant one." I joked half-heartedly.

* * *

Clara, Festival grounds

* * *

Erik reeked of fear for some reason, but I know enough about him to not ask. Whatever was bothering him was probably private and would be bad to discuss in public, and he probably didn't want to talk about it. Elith was bothered, but who could blame someone for being like that after they were basically disowned. On the bright side of things, Jade wasn't anywhere to be seen. Which was especially good since Yang was with us now, that was one interaction I was not eager to see.

"So, what kind of strategies are you guys planning to pull during the tourney?" Ruby asked.

"Like I'd tell you, what kind of fool do you think I am to tell you guys how we'll be fighting," Erik said.

"It was just an innocent question," Ruby replied.

"I've claimed the same thing enough times to know you're lying," Elith commented. "I stand with Erik on this, cards hidden in sleeves are meant to stay there."

"Fair's fair," Yang replied with a shrug. "We were going to tell you some of our strategies in exchange though."

"What if you lied about your strategies to trick us out of some secrets?" I countered.

"What's to stop you from doing the same?" Yang asked.

"Fair point, in that case, I'll divulge one secret of ours," Isaac said seriously. "We plan on feeding Dakota a ton of fire dust and throwing him at the enemy." We all had a small laugh at that.

"Oh come on, we planned on doing that with Zwei," Weiss complained. "Don't steal our plan man." Ruby and Yang got grim faced suddenly.

"Don't even joke about that," Yang said.

* * *

Isaac, Festival grounds

* * *

As time passed everyone got distracted by different booths that caught their eyes and separated from the group. Eventually, it was me and Elith just lingering with nothing to do for approximately six and a half seconds before a rainbow of colour blurred past me and made me fall backwards in surprise. I was caught by a guy in a blue-trim fedora with shades, he opened his mouth to say something but was swiftly interrupted by a high pitched voice.

"Elith!" The voice squealed. "I totally forgot you went to Beacon; How have you been, where are your teammates, who's this guy, did I surprise you, is he ok, did you miss us?" I looked over to see that Elith was being spoken to by a cat faunus girl with blue-streaked ginger hair. Knowing Elith I expected a vicious response to this sudden overload of speaking, but instead, Elith raised her hand to slow the girl down and spoke.

"I've been fine Katt, I'll introduce you to them, Isaac, slightly, probably, and what do you think?" Elith answered, 'Katt' grinned at this.

"Yes?" She asked, Elith gave a thumbs up in response. The guy who helped me up started to speak again but once again was interrupted by 'Katt'.

"Hello Isaac, I'm Neon!" Neon quickly slapped my hand as if I had offered a high five. "This is Flynt, we're old friends of Elith."

"Hey, I'm one of Elith's teammates," I said. "Nice to meet you, and thanks for catching me, Flynt."

"Don't worry about it." He said calmly, he seemed to be trying to gauge what kind of person I am by that critical look he was giving me. "You play any instruments, Isaac?"

"No, but I used to want to play the saxophone." I admitted.

"I dig it, you should give it a shot," Flynt said. "It's not too late to learn it." While we were talking, Neon had dragged Elith aside and was animatedly chatting with her about something.

"Katt, that's ridiculous," Elith stated, annoyance edging into her voice. "Why would you even think that about him?"

"It's not that crazy Elith!" She complained.

"Yes, it is, because you've only been here for a minute or two and you're jumping to conclusions." Elith countered, Neon responded maturely to this by pulling Elith's hood over her face and skating off as though she'd won this argument.

"We'll catch up later, it's best for us to clear the area when Neon ends chats with Elith like that," Flynt said as he stepped back with Neon. The pair quickly disappeared into the crowd.

Elith and I decided there was nothing left to do at the festival so we started heading back to Beacon, in slightly uncomfortable.

"So I'm considering getting a saxophone." I started Elith instantly responded with a laugh. "What's so funny?"

"I'm sorry, it's just oddly funny to picture you holding a saxophone." She explained.

"I suppose it is a weird thought," I admitted.

"I'm not saying you shouldn't get one," Elith said. "There's no way you can't now, I need to see this actually happen now."

"Maybe I will," I replied, a bit more silence occurred before I broke it again. "Do you play any instruments?"

"Nope," Elith replied quickly.

"What was Neon talking about that riled you up?" I asked, changing the topic since she did not seem to like that question.

"Something silly, don't worry about it." She said.

"Oh come on, tell me," I said, wanting the conversation to continue since the silence was boring.

"Fine, she was asking if we were dating," Elith explained. "When I said no she insisted we should, and she gets really annoying when she's persistent."

"Ah, I suppose that would get annoying," I replied, why would Neon think that after just one or two minutes of knowing I existed. "How are you even friends with her, you two seem like polar opposites."

"Well, she and Flynt were the only people except for my mom and brother whom I didn't despise in Atlas," Elith said. "And Katt is likeable, I don't hate her, she just gets annoying sometimes."

"Like Weiss?" I said.

"Precisely." She said, about this time we got to the dorms and headed in. I pulled out my scroll and absentmindedly looked for instrument shops in Vale.

 **Author's notes**

 **Why is Isaac playing saxophone in a jazz club an entertaining thought to me?**


	41. Old friends and fears

Chapter 41

Old friends and fears

* * *

Clara, EICE dorm

* * *

I looked at the roster in dismay, our fight was at 12:00 and it read Team EICE .VS. Team JSPR. Of course, it was them because who else would my team have to face other than Jade's team, if there are gods they have some prejudices against me. I looked to my team to give them what warnings I could, Jade was not going to be fun to face.

"Hey guys, I don't know about her teammates, but I do know about Jade," I said. "First off, don't listen to anything she says and anything she shows you is fake. Her semblance allows her to learn people's biggest fears, she's seen all of you so she knows what to prepare for the fight."

"I don't see how she'll produce my greatest fear," Elith said. "They're kind of hard to get to."

"Ditto." Isaac and Erik said.

"She's also very good at impressions, she can likely make it sound like who you're afraid of is there," I explained. "As for her weapon, it's an x-shaped crossbow doubling as a mace."

"Alright, now that our confidence has been built up by that pep talk, are you guys ready to head out?" Erik joked, everyone nodded and we headed to Amity. An airship dropped us off, Isaac bought us a crud ton of popcorn, then we took seats next to teams CRMS, RWBY, and LIAC. Team LIAC was well stocked with various bags of goods that Ivory swore she obtained through legitimate means. We watched team JNPR fight, then RWBY, then a few groups of people afterwards that we didn't know. Then I heard Oobleck's voice shout from the speakers.

"What a thrilling match, coming up in 6 minutes is Team EICE from Vale .VS. Team JSPR from Vacuo."

Erik, Isaac, Clara, Elith, Amity stadium

Team EICE walked to the centre of the stadium and came face to face with Team JSPR and everyone took their places. Jade was grinning menacingly, her three teammates bore slightly less intimidating grins. Spring, the guy who had been with Jade when they encountered Clara was wearing robes and held sickles in both of his hands. The next teammate, a girl named Pearl, wore a wide brim hat and had a leather vest over a grey cloth shirt. Two revolvers were at her side in ornate holsters, Isaac laughed slightly at this.

"Please, PLEASE say 'it's high noon'." He begged her. Pearl responded by checking her watch, it read '12:00' she shrugged.

"It's high noon," Pearl said with a small grin. The last teammate, a girl named Ray, wore armour made of dark metal with clawed gauntlets and no helm. In her left hand was a strange looking barbed sword with depictions of a tower running up its flat side. The arena was suddenly filled with a strange noise as the holographic displays began picking battlegrounds. A variety of symbols spun across the displays and slowed down until fire was selected on JSPR's side and forest was selected on EICE's side. Elith grinned widely when she saw the massive fire dust crystal on the other end of the arena, Erik activated his semblance to see as much of the arena as he could before the fight began.

"3, 2, 1." Professor Port counted. As soon as he finished saying one, Spring and Isaac collapsed to the floor.

* * *

Isaac, ?

* * *

I looked around, my surroundings were pitch black but I could see my hands still. One odd fact though, my hands were entirely green with no colour or shading. I looked like my dad did when he manifested himself, definitely weird and not positive. I suddenly heard footsteps and saw a mono-colour grey version of Spring running at me, no sickles and just fists. I dodged just in time and tripped him and he fell to the floor.

"Where the hell are we?" I asked, he rushed me again and I dodged.

"I'm not entirely sure about where, but what's happening is that I drew your aura out and I'm fighting it directly." He explained as he threw a punch.

"Oh, that explains him," I said simply, pointing behind him at the most recent point of colour in this abyss, a crimson figure looming menacingly.

"Finally!" I heard my dad laugh. "I've desperately been wanting to punch something, it's so boring up here."

"What?" Was all Spring was able to say before my dad tackled him to the ground, I added in some punches and kicks as Spring was rapidly annihilated by this surprise duo. Then Dad looked at me.

"Alright, now for you." He said, walking menacingly towards me. Then the abyss started to dissipate and so did we. "Oh for fu-' and that was all he could say before I woke up in the middle of the arena.

* * *

Erik, Isaac, Clara, Elith, Amity Stadium

* * *

There was no time to question Isaacs collapse and sudden recovery, nor Springs total lack of aura. At Erik's signal team EICE retreated to the forest as Elith fired a few daggers of ice from her hoodie to cover them.

"Oho, It seems that Ms. Celadon has given her clothing some extra kick," Port commented.

"Yes indeed the often neglected art of dust weaving, clever indeed," Oobleck added.

"Alright, we need to rush out quickly," Erik said to his team. "As soon as we get out there, BlackCat- Minute Meteor and immediately afterwards, DesertStorm- frozen lightning." They nodded and rushed out of the forest, as Erik had expected, team JSPR was just at the edge of the forest. Clara quickly threw her hook into the trees and grabbed Elith, Elith propelled them upwards with a blast of wind. Once they were in the air Clara kicked Elith down towards Ray, Elith crushed a fire crystal and flame quickly engulfed her as she slammed straight into Ray and made a miniature explosion. Elith quickly kicked off from Ray as a dust grenade from Isaac detonated on ray, partially covering her in ice. Then Clara fired two sniper shots, one fire and one electrical, the fire shot broke and melted the ice and then the electrical shot made use of all that

new water.

"Ray just took quite the combo, not many people could keep on their feet after taking a punishment like that," Port announced

Ray didn't seem very phased though, she gave a quick look to Jade who nodded in response.

"Pearly light!" Jade called. Pearl instantly jumped into action, she ran over to Ray whose hand were already cupped to catch her foot. Then Ray launched Pearl into the air from which Pearl rained down shot after shot down at Isaac, he got hit by seven shots.

"What clever strategy, it seems that Pearl is using the sun to her advantage by making it hard to look at her." Oobleck declared

"And she's using wind dust to stay up there," Elith commented. "I'll knock her down a peg." And with a lick of her hand Elith sent a bolt of lightning at Pearl, it struck true and P earl fell from the sky. The distraction of this victory was short lived as Isaac was hit in the side by a crossbow bolt, placing him just before the disqualifying amount. Team EICE went to flee back to the forest, but not before a second bolt struck Clara in the back.

"Elith light it up, stall them for a moment," Erik said, with a small grin Elith fired a spray of flame into the forest behind them and lit the forest floor ablaze.

"An Interesting move, Ms. Celadon has ignited the forest," Port announced.

"Yes, team EICE clearly has a burning desire to win this match," Oobleck said, only one blonde person in the crowd clapped at what he said.

"Erik, I have a plan that is so insane we'll probably die and so will they." Elith submitted.

"Shoot," Erik said.

"Get me to the other side, then let's do a bigger and better version of Technomancy- Firewall," Elith explained.

"Ok, Clara and Isaac will go with you, I'll stick around here to stall them," Erik ordered, the team immediately split.

* * *

Erik, forest

* * *

I watched the flames and searched the area, where were they? Had they gone after everyone else instead of me, the lone person. I would've expected them to be more opportunistic than that, but then I saw Ray walking towards me straight through the flames. I switched to my whip form and waited for her to get close, as soon as she was I made for an overhead swing which she aimed to catch. At the last second, I jerked the whip in a new direction and turned the swing into a low swipe that caught her leg, which I pulled out from under her. I switched back to sword form and rushed her, but I heard a voice just as I reached her.

"Stop right there Erik." I heard my mother's voice ring out, I knew it had to be Jade's impersonation, but it did make me stall for just a second out of fear. Ray wasted no time rewarding my hesitance with a sucker punch and an overhead swing.

Isaac, Clara, Elith, Amity stadium

"We can't quite see what happened, but Erik has been removed from combat," Oobleck announced.

"Dammit!" Elith cursed, ducking her head under a shot from Pearl. They were almost to the giant fire crystal but the shots fired by Pearl were making it hard to get any further. But after a few moments, the three of them made it and Elith immediately clambered onto the crystal.

"Alright, this is going to be very self-destructive, but don't worry too much about it," Elith said. "Just cover me and also stand fifteen or twenty feet away, maybe further."

"How self-destructive?" Isaac asked concernedly.

"I probably won't lose all my aura, don't worry," Elith said.

"Probably?" Isaac asked, backing up as the fire crystal started to break apart.

"Most likely." Elith amended, flames started forming in the air around her "Just freaking step back okay?" Unfortunately, it was at this moment that the energy from the crystal fully released due to her lapse in focus. An intense blast of flames burst outward towards the other side of the field, a sheer rolling wall of fire. Elith's aura dropped quickly, as did Isaac and everyone else except Clara who had taken cover already.

"That's not something you see everyday ladies and gentleman!" Professor port announced. "But wait, what is this!"

 **Erik: 15/160**

 **Isaac: 8/160**

 **Clara: 97/160**

 **Elith: 1/160**

 **Jade: 15/160**

 **Spring: 0/160**

 **Pearl: 13/160**

 **Ray: 145/160**

"Ray took no cover, but is unphased by this wave of fire." Oobleck marvelled.

"It's marked here, Ray's semblance is the total nullification of heat around her," Port announced.

"I guess you could say she gave that attack, the cold shoulder." Oobleck jested.

"Stop announcing," Port said plainly.

* * *

Clara, Amity stadium

* * *

"See, I told you I wouldn't lose all my aura!" Elith exclaimed.

"You are at a single damn point of aura Elith, I could shatter your aura with a hard enough flick!" Isaac shouted.

"Stop being concerned, it disqualified you." Elith countered.

"Can you two stop arguing?" I submitted. "I have someone to fight."

"Ray just has a sword, you can pick away at her aura with sniper shots," Elith advised, so I removed my sniper rifle from my back and loaded a cartridge of ice infused bullets. I looked out onto the field and saw that Elith had really done a number on just about everything, the whole field was black and the forest was ablaze. And marching towards me in the centre of the arena was Ray, looking more intimidating than ever. I levelled my rifle and carefully fired my shots at Ray, freezing the majority of her and bringing her to a halt. Ray suddenly glowed red and the ice melted rapidly, letting her continue moving.

"Shit," I muttered.

"It seems Ms. Celadon isn't the only one mixing dust and clothing, Ray seems to be using a dust weave to superheat her armour to resist Clara's use of ice," Port announced. Great, so ice and fire are useless now. I searched my pack for other cartridges, the only other type I'd packed was gravity and that was- *Crack* My thoughts were interrupted as I felt a jolt in my hand and heard a cracking sound, I looked at my hands to see two things. My rifle had a hole in it, and in that hole was Ray's right hand. I looked up to see that Ray was still far away from me and was missing a hand, well isn't that neat? I tried to split my rifle into my swords but she had broken the swords handles, I was weaponless. I just had my hook and a cartridge of rifle, what could I even do now? Then a crazy enough idea hit me, I impaled the cartridge with my hook and activated the dust. My hook started floating in a crazed manner, drifting around with no pattern. With little other options I rushed Ray and leapt to swing my hook down at her, and I leapt further than expected. For once, I was grateful that something went wrong since Ray had been ready with a counter. Suddenly the cartridge stopped floating and got very very heavy, and my swing continued as normal, right into Rays back. There was no impact for a moment after it hit, things just looked warped around it, but then it very suddenly sent Ray flying out of bounds.

"And in an unexpected turnaround, Team EICE wins the round!" Port announced

"Port I think you're underplaying the gravity of that victory," Oobleck said.

"You didn't even try with that one." Port shamed him.

* * *

Elith, Amity stadium

* * *

"That was too close Isaac, if I tell you to take cover I have a damn good reason for it!" I complained to him. "If you could've tucked away that concern then we would've won that fight far more easily."

"I'm sorry for being worried when you saying you probably wouldn't die, I was totally overreacting!" Isaac countered. To be perfectly honest, it felt nice that he was concerned for me like this, I just want to get it through his head that there are times for concern and times that aren't.

"Elith, we won and that's what matters," Clara said.

"Yes, by the skin of our teeth," I said, still frustrated. Suddenly our small bit of infighting completely dissipated as a common enemy came strutting into the conversation.

"Cheap tricks, I call a rematch you sacks of-" Jade started as she marched towards us, but I was quick to interrupt her. I gave a swift backhand slap and pushed her onto the floor with a hard shove, it was good to get that bit of frustration out.

"Not. Right. Now." I said calmly. "Bring a gauntlet to throw down in a while and I might listen to you." I walked off and my team followed, quickly greeted by Team CRMS and Team LIAC.

"That was an excellent fight." Cadet submitted.

"You're one mad bastard Elith, the brilliant kind!" Liath submitted enthusiastically. "Guess who we get to fight later?"

"Whom?" Erik asked.

"These guys!" Carter submitted, pointing at Team CRMS.

 **Author's notes**

 **Clara's proficient in improvised weaponry**


	42. Shadow of the mountain

Chapter 42

Shadow of the mountain

* * *

Clara, Amity stadium

* * *

We spent the next six hours watching a few matches and going to and from the festival grounds. Not much occurred and Jade never turned up after Elith's unexpected action, which I was very grateful for. As we were riding back up to Amity for the last time, I felt Misty poke my shoulder.

"What's the deal with that girl Jade, why does she hate you?" Misty signed out.

"We used to be friends, but she began despising me after she learned I like girls." I signed back. "It only got worse after everyone learned I could control Grimm, I couldn't tell you exactly why."

"I think I can explain why exactly she did." Misty signed. "She's afraid."

"I highly doubt Jade would be properly scared of anything." I signed with a sigh.

"She's afraid of being judged, she finds the thought of being seen as strange or unusual by society terrifying." Misty signed. "She probably was afraid that if she was friends with you then people would judge her for being associated with a 'weird' person."

"How would you even come up with that, you've only seen her three times and she hasn't spoken to you." I signed, confused.

"She tried using her semblance on me, didn't realise what my semblance did." Misty signed with a shrug.

"What is your semblance, you've never told me." I signed back, still confused.

"I call it reversal, whenever a semblance directly affects me I cause it to backfire." She signed. "Either making them experience the same effect or twisting the effect somehow."

"So, she tried learning your fear but your semblance let you learn hers instead?" I signed back, understanding now. Misty nodded as our Bullhead came to a stop, and walked out with everyone else. It was 5:49 and Teams LIAC and CRMS had to part ways with us as we returned to our spots in the stands.

* * *

LIAC, CRMS, Amity stadium

* * *

Team CRMS and Team LIAC staggered into the stadium just in time to line up in the centre, except Argus who had been there ten minutes early.

"Couldn't you guys be more punctual sometimes," Argus said.

"Being punctual is for squares." Sage jested.

"He's not wrong, we should have gotten out here earlier," Cadet said.

"I have a perfectly good excuse for being almost late, I had food to eat." Carter submitted.

"That's not an excuse." Ivory said.

"Food is always an excuse," Liath said defensively. The holographic selectors began spinning rapidly, landing on a mountain symbol behind Team LIAC and ocean symbol behind Team CRMS. As the mountain rose it came between the sun and the battlefield, casting a long shadow across the fight. Ivory's snake eyes lit up at this, a grin slipping onto her face. Sage looked at the ship mast behind him, glad he had a good spot to get into.

"3, 2, 1." Professor Port counted down, Ivory was gone the moment he finished producing sound. Misty had no chance to respond as Ivory appeared right behind her and started a series of rapid slices with her daggers, and when Misty started to turn and retaliate Ivory would just appear behind her again.

"An unfortunate turn of events for Team CRMS, Ivory is in the perfect position for her semblance." Professor Port said, and one could almost hear his preemptive sigh as he realised what was coming next.

"Yes, Ivory's ability to shift from shadow to shadow is enabling her to pull off some shady tricks here," Oobleck added.

Ivory's fun was cut short as Robin waved her hand and balls of light popped up all over the field, dispelling the shade.

"But her abilities are easily countered by Robins ability to shed so-" Oobleck started.

"Don't" Port interrupted. Ivory grimaced since she was now completely separate from her team, and she grimaced even harder after she took a swift kick from Misty. Meanwhile, Sage was running for the ship mast in the water and Cadet was rushing at Carter. Carter responded in kind, pulling a strange looking crowbar from his belt and charging. Liath and Argus hung back, considering tactical options. Ivory and Misty had levelled out and were stuck in a pretty evenly matched dagger fight at the edge of the water, neither of them landing many hits on each other. By this time, Sage had reached the top of the mast and began lazily searching through his quiver for a good arrow. Carter never reached Cadet, he seemed to trip on absolutely nothing and skid across the ground right to Cadet's feet. Cadet mimed an uppercut and Carter was sent straight into the air along with Cadet, then a kick from Cadet sent Carter hurtling towards Liath.

"Truly the invisible force behind Team CRMS, Cadet can manifest his aura in more physical and offensive manners due to his semblance," Oobleck announced, accompanied by a groan.

"I'll catch you," Liath shouted, with his outstretched arms he caught Carter by his legs and spun him around three times before throwing Carter right back at Sage. "You can't come running to me in fights, go get him!"

"Yep, that's what happened!" Carter shouted back. "I definitely came hurtling down by choice."

"What the-" Cadet said just before Carter slammed into his chest and sent them both hurtling down towards the water.

The shadow of the pair fell on Ivory for a brief moment and she was gone, appearing in Liath's shadow. Cadet and Carter made a large splash and both of them got up and went straight back to fighting, Cadet wasn't using his semblance in quite as big attacks now that his aura was rather reduced.

"Ivory, how many times do I have to tell you to not use my shadow?" Liath asked exasperatedly.

"More than you'd want to." She replied.

"Robin's coming, ready yourselves," Argus said. With that comment, he raised his sword to the sky and a glowing circle with a thirty-foot diameter appeared, centring on him. A soft blue glow permeated the area and the three of them looked much calmer than they had before.

"Aha, Argus has used his interesting semblance, he is able to produce an aura that makes allies around him calmer and more focused," Port announced.

"That must be good for study groups," Oobleck commented.

"Oobleck you've confused me, what are you planning?" Port asked. "You didn't make a joke."

"I don't have to." Oobleck countered.

"How many times do I have to tell you to not play with my mind Argus?" Liath said. A small grin showed on Argus's face as his helmet's visor closed over it before he responded.

"Ditto on what Ivory said," Argus replied. There was no time to marvel at one of Argus's rare informal moments as a highly reflective axe cleaved through the air to be caught by Argus's shield. Robin pulled back and raised her mirror shield as Liath tried an overhead swing with his claymore. Ivory, who'd positioned herself a bit higher up on the mountain, tried to decide who to shoot.

Eventually, she decided on Misty since she was rushing in to be an immediate threat, Ivory nocked an earth dust-infused arrow and shot it at Misty. But the arrow was knocked from its path by another arrow, she saw Sage giving a friendly wave from the other side. Meanwhile, Mist drew an ice crystal from her pocket and put it into a strange socket in her left-hand dagger, then she clipped a similar socket from the other dagger onto the crystal's second side. She aimed her daggers at Argus and activated the dust, sending a very fast, constant beam of cold energy from the dust crystal. Ice rapidly covered Argus, fully incapacitating him. Liath quickly solved the issue, however, by picking Argus and slamming him into Robin. Meanwhile, Cadet was having a difficult time fighting Carter now that he couldn't send him flying. Sage decided to pitch in and fired a few arrows at Carter, to which Carter responded by abandoning his fight with Cadet and running straight at the mast. Instead of climbing the mast, he pointed his crowbar at Sage and the hooked head shot out like a grappling hook and caught on Sage's hood. With a hard tug, Sage fell off the mast and back to semi-solid sand. No longer having the higher ground, Sage quickly split his bow into two curved swords and readied himself. It was at this time that Misty had reached Robin, and Argus's circle. As soon as misty stepped into Argus's circle, it turned from a light blue to a dark red. Argus quickly lost all proper form, dropped his shield, and starting swinging and roaring like a madman. So did Liath, but it's questionable whether the circle really had anything to do with it.

"There are many interesting semblances in this fight today, and the most interesting is Misty's in my opinion." Professor port.

"When subjected to a semblance made to affect people directly, like Argus's calming aura, Misty passively reverses the effect or causes it to backfire," Oobleck said. "Not that it's helping in this situation, mist isn't that great against the amount steam Argus is putting out now."

Carter made a tactical retreat from his fight, leading Sage and Cadet over to the mountain. Misty and Robin were on their toes trying to not get hit by Argus and Liaths frenzied attacks that they forgot about Ivory, who was currently loading three dust-tipped arrows at once. Ivory drew her bow and fired the small volley at Robin and Misty, freezing Robin and electrocuting Misty. Without considering the stupidity in the actions, Argus swung his sword at Misty and he got electrocuted as well. Ivory looked at the board for reference on how the fight was going.

 **Cadet- 34/160**

 **Robin- 66/160**

 **Misty- 37/160**

 **Sage- 147/160**

 **Liath- 0/0**

 **Ivory- 132/160**

 **Argus- 60/160**

 **Carter- ?/160**

"Oh my, it seems two people on Team LIAC are doing some interesting things to their aura." Professor Port announced. "Liath has a two-part semblance, he can remove his aura's protection in order to greatly increase his strength."

"He really takes 'a good defence is a good offence' quite literally," Oobleck said. "And for Carter, I think we may see the second self-sacrifice of the day."

"Carter's semblance, overload, allows him to rapidly generate aura." Professor port stated. "This boosts his strength and speed for a short time before he quite literally blows up and falls unconscious." Sure enough, Carter was streaking across the field and got to Misty in moments, slamming the but of his crowbar into her head and dropping her below sixteen. After accomplishing that, he swiftly clambered up the mountain. Liath took advantage of the surprise this moment brought and stabbed his claymore into a nearby boulder, he tapped the hilt of the claymore and then lifted it up with the boulder still attached.

"Play ball!" Oobleck managed to shout before Liath slammed the boulder into Robin, sending her flying. Then an arrow struck Liath in the leg, causing him to curse and go back to defensive aura.

"Does this mean Liath is ousted?" Professor port mused.

"His aura's still above sixteen by technicality," Oobleck replied. This victory was short-lived as a blast of invisible force launched Ivory from her perch and into the out of bounds. Another blast slammed Argus into the mountainside and then into a boulder nearby, reducing him to sixteen aura. This usage of aura reduced Cadet to twenty, leaving him as easy pickings for what happened next.

"Look out below!" Carter shouted from the top of the mountain, immediately followed by him leaping off and down towards Cadet. Liath rolled his boulder-laden claymore between him and Cadet as Carter landed right on Cadet. This was swiftly followed by a large blast of energy sourced from Carter, knocking Cadet to eightaura and Carter to zero.

* * *

Liath, Amity stadium

* * *

I took a quick glance at the board to check aura levels, everyone was out except Sage. I quickly evaluated my options, I couldn't rush him since he had a bow and what good is my clay- I stopped my thought process right there.

"Fuck it, all or nothing!" I shouted as he broke his claymore out of the boulder and ran out from cover. I flung the claymore over my shoulder, swung, and let go. My sword spun towards Sage who looked momentarily terrified until my claymore rapidly lost altitude and clattered to the floor. Well, it was worth a shot. "I regret nothing." Sage fired off a few arrows and knocked me down to sixteen.

"A close match, but it seems that the winner is Team CRMS." Profesor Port announced.

"Yes, one of the more chaotic matches we've seen today," Oobleck added. "Both teams split apart and did little teamwork."

"But recognize that sometimes leaders won't always be able to dish out orders, it's a good skill to hold your own in combat." Port submitted. "The next match will be in twelve minutes." The words Team SSSN .VS. Team NDGO appeared on screens everywhere.

 **Author's notes**

 **Not my most quality chapter, more interesting (and better) chapter coming up next.**


	43. Dad?

Chapter 43

Dad?

Elith, EICE dorm

We'd left the stadium early to rest in our dorm, except for Erik who'd decided to stroll around for a while. Isaac was busy fixing Clara's swords/rifle and Clara was lying on the floor staring at the ceiling and looking forlorn. Dakota had long ago stopped vying for her attention and was curled up silently next to her.

"Hey Elith, if someone acts horribly but has a pitiable reason for it, should they be forgiven or not," Clara asked suddenly.

"It depends on how badly they acted and how pitiable the reason was." I submitted. "This is about Jade isn't it."

"Nothing slips by you, does it?" Clara said sarcastically. "Misty told me about Jade's fears earlier."

"And?" I prompted, only realizing afterwards that that may have sounded a bit ruder than I meant it.

"Jade's deathly afraid of being judged, so she turned against me to not be judged by proxy," Clara explained.

"Then she wasn't your friend," Isaac interjected suddenly.

"What?" Clara replied, looking confused.

"If such a small thing like being judged makes them steer clear of you, then they probably were never really a friend," Isaac stated, a bit of anger simmering below his tone. "It's when people stick with you in tough moments you know they care."

"Thank you Isaac, that actually clears it up a little." Clara said.

"No problem." He submitted.

"I'm going to go get some coffee, want some?" Clara asked.

"Sure." He replied.

"Could you get me some-" I was immediately cut off.

"Hot chocolate." Clara finished.

"Please and thank you," I replied. Clara left and the room was left silent for a bit, aside from the sounds of Isaac's work.

I chose to maintain the silence, I wanted to think about today. That fight had been too close, if Isaac hadn't stuck around then we would've won so easily. Why did he even bother sticking around, I'm a bit of a jerk and I honestly wonder how he tolerates it more than anyone else given that I've interrogated him the most. What was weirder about his action was that however much it frustrated me, it felt nice that he did that albeit that the act was stupid.

"Isaac, why did you stick around when I told you to take cover?" I asked.

"That's a bit of a silly question isn't it?" He asked.

"I don't see how you risked your life for seemingly no purpose," I stated

"You're pretty oblivious sometimes for being trained in a profession all about perception." Isaac jested with a laugh. "Obviously I stuck around because I was concerned about a friend of mine about to potentially hurt themselves."

"That's the obvious point over, but I have another query," I said. "How the hell do you think I'm a good enough friend to risk major self-injury for?"

"Counter-question, what makes you think you aren't?" Isaac retorted.

"I don't know; Because I've made you reveal uncomfortable secrets, been blunt and rude nigh on constantly, and that fight wasn't the first time I've blown you up." I listed from the top of my head, Isaac winced as he remembered practising a few Technomancy moves.

"That's not really important, you have as much an excuse for being blunt and overly inquisitive as I do for being reserved and secretive," Isaac said. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but you were raised by a liar and a complete arse who hid a bunch of shady dealings that you didn't agree with."

"I guess you're right, questions are basically my defence mechanism." I submitted. "Doesn't change that I'm a bit of a jerk."

"You make up for in other regards," Isaac said. "I actually appreciate you making me explain some of my past, it feels good to confide even if I didn't want to."

"Anything else, or is that the one redeeming quality," I asked.

"You actually do care more than you show and we all see that from time to time; you appreciate the occasional value of silence over small talk, you're protective, you value us above you, and I could go on." Isaac listed, he got up and walked over to hug me. I begrudgingly hugged back, for some reason I always get bothered by sudden hugs regardless of circumstance. "I think offsets your problems."

"Thanks," I replied, suddenly the door opened and Clara walked in.

"Jeez guys, I was away for two minutes calm down." She joked.

"Shut up," I replied.

Erik, Beacon entryway

Lots of people were flooding in down the walkway, either all the matches were over or no one cared about the next fights. I scanned the crowd for three faces; Mom, Emerald, and that Mercury guy. Instead, I caught sight of another interesting advent, a woman flanked by two Atlas soldiers with a few Atlas bots behind her was marching up to Beacon. Then with a sickening sound of metal on metal, one of the Atlas bots fell down lacking a head. Behind him was a man with messy black hair, a strange greatsword and a demeanour clearly marking drunkenness. He kicked the head towards the woman while shouting a harsh greeting, the woman ordered her soldiers to halt. This guy is about to get a freaking Atlesian firing squad isn't he, shit. Weiss turned up in front of the man, clearly taking personal offence to something the man said. But she was moved aside by the man as he pointed to the woman.

"Saw that gaudy ship of yours in town." The man said, his voice was unusually familiar. "I guess you're here, too." I didn't really notice much after that, my attention kind of lapsed as my brain started trying to figure out where I'd heard that voice before. That raspy, deep, always slightly drunk sounding voice, holy shit. I snapped back to reality as I heard Ruby and Weiss talking next to me.

"That's my uncle!" Ruby squealed happily.

"What!" Weiss and I said simultaneously, for very, very different reasons. I realized that 'Qrow' and this woman had started attempting to kill each other, how quaint.

"Kick her but Uncle Qrow!" Ruby shouted.

"Teach him respect Winter!" Weiss shouted. I honestly didn't know what was going on, my brain was currently trying to figure out what was going on. Why would he be here, why's he attacking Winter, he looks less like what I'd expected, why was no one intervening? Then the fight ended as suddenly as it began as General Ironwood and Ozpin marched in to stop the altercation. Ruby rushed over to say hi to Qrow and I just kind of froze in place, how do you respond to suddenly seeing your dad without covering or secrecy for the first time and also finding out that the girl you're dating is apparently your cousin.

"Hey Erik, this is my Uncle Qrow!" Ruby called out. Qrow looked just as surprised as I felt for just a moment as I approached, but quickly resumed having a normal expression.

"Umm, I've met him before," I said, flawless execution.

"Really ho-" Ruby was cut off by Qrow.

"I'll tell you later, looks like I'm in trouble," Qrow interjected as he walked off with Ozpin.

Clara, EICE dorm

I was taking a nap when I was suddenly awoken by Erik bursting into the dorm and falling onto his bed.

"Hey, you doing alright buddy?" Isaac asked.

"Nope," Erik answered, his voice muffled from being face down.

"Do you want to tell us the problem?" I asked.

"How much of my past have I told you about?" Erik asked.

"We know about your mother, her virus, that you're from Mistral, and that your mother trained you in some shady skills." Elith listed off. "I'm guessing it has to do with one of those?"

"Well, time to tell you about the other half of my family that I know about." Erik began. "I didn't make it to Beacon without help, my Dad helped me." Erik went on to explain his encounters with his Dad and how he'd escaped Mistral and arrived in Beacon, then he ended with an explanation of what had just happened.

"Well, shit," I responded, A+ response Clara.

"That sums up my life right now, what with this being added on to this next problem," Erik replied. "I'm pretty sure my mother is at Beacon right now, or at least she has henchman here."

"That's not a good thing." Isaac submitted. "Do you think you could identify her? We could talk to Ozpin and have him show us pictures of the visitors."

"I doubt it, I only know her by her frame and voice," Erik stated. "He'd probably only have her face, so those bits of knowledge would be useless."

"Plus your mother doesn't sound dumb enough to be spotted by someone who recognizes her, nor to try something here in the middle of Beacon," Elith added. "That's both good and bad, you don't have to look over your shoulder but she probably won't give you a chance to reveal her."

"At least I have that to smile about, my Dad coming hasn't even brought as much good news as I'd expect," Erik complained, then he slipped into a mocking tone. "Hi it's your dad again, guess what, you've been dating your cousin!" I have no idea how to respond to this, I've no personal experience with matters remotely like this or experience with family in general.

"That does suck," I said unhelpfully, I literally could have said anything.

Erik, Dorm roof

Eventually, we moved the conversation to the roof to enjoy the night air, and definitely not because our neighbours had been telling us to stop talking. I was laying down, looking up at the shattered moon as we all just sort of hung out in total silence. They'd managed to calm me down about my mother and at least console me on the new Ruby issue.

"We can try to hunt down your dad tomorrow, get some answers from him to satisfy your curiosity," Isaac said. "But for now, let's head back to our room and rest."

"Yeah, we have another fight tomorrow." Elith supplied. "Not something we want to be tired for."

"Alright, I'll stay here for a bit if you don't mind," I said. "I'll be down in no time."

"Don't stay up here too long," Clara said. With that, they headed down to our dorm and I remained looking up at the moon. It wasn't long after they left that I heard a sudden fluttering sound and then a thud to my right, a pattern of sound I knew from experience.

"Hello, dad," I said, not bothering to check.

"Hey kid, how's Beacon been treating you?" Qrow asked.

"Well enough, better than home." I submitted.

"Good to hear, so now that I know you aren't on her good side anymore I can actually answer some of your questions," Qrow said.

"There are some pressing concerns that matter more than my questions, I'm starting to think my mom's here at Beacon," I said, hoping he'd be able to help.

"Not a hard conclusion kid, especially with the information I hear you and your friends have gathered up," Qrow said, slightly mockingly. "Also, stop calling her your mom since she isn't."

"Sorry what?" I said, double checking to make sure I heard that right. "You told me-"

"Kid, I'll admit I told you a half-truth," Qrow stated. "I call her your mom in the sense that she raised you, your actual parent is someone who was aligned with your mom."

"And you only say this now because?" I inquired.

"You had enough trouble believing me when I said you were my son, how seriously do you think you would've taken me if I'd also told you your mom wasn't your mom?" Qrow said.

"Fair point," I replied. "So if your friends with Ozpin, why can't you just point her out in the roster."

"Erik, we know she's here but we don't know who she is," Qrow stated. "Get some rest and leave matters like that to us adults, you and your friends have involved yourselves enough in these matters." Just like that, Qrow was replaced with a crow and flew off towards Ozpin's tower. Well, that was certainly not how I pictured my next conversation with my dad going, it seems that every time I encounter him I have to completely rearrange my perception of the world. I sighed as I started to head downstairs to my dorm.

Isaac, ?

"You know, I can't wait to see what happens next." My dad said vaguely.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Oh, I mean a few things." He said. "How the next fight is going to go, what's going to happen next with that Erik kid, and when your mom's going to get here."

"Please stop reminding me that they exist," I replied.

"Its blood for blood kid, you committed patricide and they're just going to make sure you pay your dues for that." He stated menacingly.

"You deserved it," I grumbled.

"No more than you do." He replied.

"I'm pretty sure you've killed more people for less justifiable reasons," I said.

"Murder is murder." He said nonchalantly. "A man who kills a thousand meets the same sentence as a man who kills two."

"That's philosophical coming from you," I said.

"A man can have hobbies." He retorted. "I need to do something to keep myself entertained in this empty landscape you call your mind."

 **Author's notes**

 **I know what you're thinking, the answer is yes**


	44. Something wicked

**New poll is open on my profile, use it to influence the story.**

Chapter 44

Something wicked

* * *

Elith, EICE dorm

* * *

I woke up cursing under my breath, I'd had a revelation while I was sleeping. I'd realized that the odd feelings that had recently risen for Isaac weren't friendly, I'm starting to think my idiot brain has decided it's a bright idea to actually like him. This is demented, I should be thinking about my homework or battle tactics for today, not something stupid like dating someone. My mind generally doesn't do stuff like this, what about Isaac is making my thoughts choose to contradict itself now? Who needs consistency of character anyways?

"Are you doing alright Elith?" Clara asked.

"Yeah, why do you ask?" I replied.

"You reek of frustration, lots of it." She said, shit I forgot she could smell emotion. "What's the issue?"

"Nothing, I'm fine," I replied.

"Someone's being defensive." She accused, suddenly I was rescued by Erik coming into the room.

"Alright guys, I've decided who we're sending to doubles and who we're fighting." He said. "I've decided that Technomancy has the best synergy for the doubles, you two are pretty lethal working together."

"Are you suggesting we kill the opposition?" I asked.

"No." He replied.

"Just checking," I said. "The people we're fighting are from a team called PPER from here, I've heard a bit about them."

"Same here, they're one of the best first-year teams," Isaac said. "The whole team works pretty well with each other."

"So it's probably going to be a tough fight, so I want you two to pull every trick you have," Erik said. "I don't know which ones you'll be fighting, but I have a few strategies that should just be rule of thumb."

"Which ones?" I asked.

"Open the fight with Technomancy- thunderclap, and throughout the fight Technomancy- firewall can give you two some breathing room," Erik explained. "Technomancy- chaos is the last resort move, and once you eliminate one you can probably just flank them and use blood circle."

* * *

Isaac, Elith, Amity stadium

* * *

Elith and Isaac walked out to the centre of the stadium to be greeted by two girls who waved at them, Elith and Isaac waved back. The girl on the left was somewhat short with long brown hair and a dyed streak of dark blue, her friendly round features were disarming. She wore a dark green overcoat with a white shirt underneath, and her pants were slightly baggy and black. Slung over her shoulder was what looked like a lute, an odd weapon choice. The girl on the right was tall with rough cut ginger hair, and her round face was complimented by an array of light freckles. She wore leather armour padded with furs and a small cape that looked like it was made from wolf fur, she looked intimidating. She was tossing her weapon between her hands, a strange looking bastard sword. The flat of the blade was painted a dark red and the edge itself was jagged and grey, having sharpened spikes jutting out at regular interval.

"Good morning, I'm Ember and this is Persi." The ginger greeted Isaac and Elith.

"The name EICE doesn't suit your team, not with a flame-haired beauty like yourself on it," Persi said flirtatiously to Elith, who responded by gesturing rudely towards her.

"Nice to meet you guys, how many puns do you bet Oobleck will make this round?" Isaac asked

"Six." Persi bet.

"I bet four," Isaac said. "I'll put twenty lien on that." The rollers started to spin, eventually creating a patch of tall grass and a cityscape behind Persi and Ember and a mountain and a desert behind Elith and Isaac.

"3, 2, 1." Professor Port counted, the second he finished Isaac threw a dust grenade he'd slipped into his hand and it exploded into a burst of air to launch Persi and Ember into the air. Elith drained most of her hoodies lightning reserves to quickly arc a bolt of lightning between the two before she and Isaac fell back. Just in time as they were narrowly missed by a volley of,,, Paper balls?

"A shocking opener to the match, Ms. Celadon has used her proficiency in dust control to zap the opposition awake this morning," Oobleck said. Elith and Isaac took cover behind one of the sandstone pillars, peeking out to look at the opposition.

"We should wait for them to come to us," Elith stated.

"Alright," Isaac replied as he filled another grenade with ice dust. Suddenly a paper airplane flew by them and landed in the sand, seconds later the paper airplane suddenly became Persi with her lute raised over her head.

"Looks like Persi's started using her semblance, the ability to manipulate and even become paper," Port announced.

"At first glance, her ability seems tearable, but she's a creative girl who's figured out how to make the most of it," Oobleck announced. "But I won't spoil the surprise." The lute had changed, it was now covered in a layered grey carapace that looked like it was reinforcing the lute. She swung at Isaac who narrowly dodged, then at Elith who she caught square in the chest. Elith tumbled into the sand as Isaac lunged out at Persi's side, forcing her to dodge instead of continuing her attack. Elith pulled herself up and joined Isaac's assault, but was distracted by a growling sound behind her. She turned to see Ember, whose body was rapidly transforming into that of a rather large wolf.

"Ember has begun showing off her semblance, shape-thief she calls it," Port announced. "It enables her to transform into the last aura-bearing creature she slew, in this case, a wolf." The wolf quickly pounced past Elith and onto Isaac, slamming him onto the ground. Elith rushed to his aid but was cut off by Persi, pointing the neck of her lute at Elith. Persi plucked a string on the lute and a shotgun blast from the tip of the lute launched Elith back onto the ground.

"Unstable idea time!" Elith called, pulling out a purple crystal of gravity dust. She broke it underfoot and everything around her started floating but her and Isaac. "Get over here Isaac." After he got over Elith used the remaining energy to slam Ember and Persi into the ground, then she removed a fire crystal.

"Firewall?" Isaac asked, already grabbing a wind grenade. Elith crushed the crystal and created a long wall of fire between them and the others, then Isaac threw the grenade and the rush of wind channelled the flames into Persi and Ember. Suddenly Ember burst out of the flames with a howl and tackled Elith to the ground, Isaac quickly reacted by kicking her off Elith. Elith pulled herself up and rushed to Isaac with her Sanguinems crossed to catch an overhead swing from Persi. Isaac covered her back as he swapped his Knixes into shotgun mode and sent a few blasts into Ember, making her stay down for the moment.

The fires died out and Persi pulled herself up and played a weird sounding note on the lute, suddenly the carapace was reinforced with spikes of ice. Persi went for Elith again, but Elith had adapted to the odd weapon already and easily ducked under the blow. Elith the thrust up at Persi's neck, but was launched back by a very forceful impact. Elith was confused because there had been no blast and looked down to see what looked like a tiny wad of paper.

"Persi has put all her cards on the table, this is her creative use for her semblance." Professor Port announced. "Through special folding techniques, which would normally require hundreds of pounds of mechanical force, she can compress paper into heavy and durable projectiles." Persi grinned as she brought another paper bullet out from her pockets and shot it at Elith, but Elith was prepared. She shot a blast of fire, incinerating the bullet in moments. She used the fire as cover to rush up and strike at Persi, catching her in the chest. Meanwhile, Isaac was circling with Embers wolf form, he couldn't reload his knixes or she'd strike and he had the advantage if she rushed in. Isaac broke the stalemate by tossing a grenade of steam dust, creating a cloud of obscuring hot steam to help him disengage. It didn't take long for Ember to rush out from the steam in human form with her sword raised to strike. Isaac crossed his knives and caught the jagged blade and he and Ember were stuck with locked blades for a moment. It didn't last long as Ember traced something on her hilt, then the jagged blades started spinning much in the same fashion as a chainsaw. Isaac's daggers were swiftly flung to the ground, leaving him standing unarmed.

Elith and Persi kept trading blows pretty equally, both of them running low on aura and stamina.

"While it's been fun, I think we've reached the coda," Persi said. She strummed another odd cord on her lute and the spiked ice rapidly melted as it gave way to flame. Persi slammed the lute into the ground and a blast of flame launched Elith backwards and out of fighting capability.

"Ms. Celadon has been eliminated from the match!" Professor Port announced.

"As with last time, Ms. Celadon has made a fiery exit from the match," Oobleck said. Ember was distracted by the sound of someone being eliminated and Isaac took advantage, punching her in the face and wresting her sword from her hands.

"It seems Isaac has had the perfect opportunity to use his disarming personality on Ember!" Oobleck said.

"Give. Gilded. Thorn. Back." Ember said angrily.

"Later," Isaac said simply as he kicked her onto the ground and slammed his recently acquired chainsaw sword into her, rapidly chipping away her aura. His victory was short-lived as she quickly reached out and pulled his legs out from under him, and before Isaac could recover she pulled herself on top of him and began repeatedly punching him in the face. It didn't take long for Isaac to fall below sixteen aura. Then Ember retrieved her weapon and walked off

"And the victors are Ember and Persi of team PPER!" Professor Port announced.

* * *

Isaac, Amity stadium

* * *

"I just noticed something, why do Port and Oobleck call you Ms. Celadon but call everyone else by their first name?" I asked Elith as we walked off the field.

"Oh, I asked them to." She said with a smirk. "I just knew that my dad would be watching these matches on TV, it's to spite him." As we made it off the field we were greeted by Erik and Clara, then Team CRMS.

"Let me guess Erik, you're not angry just disappointed?" I joked.

"I'm not really either," Erik replied. "It was a good fair fight, it doesn't really matter."

"We always have next year," Clara replied with a shrug. Ember and Persi arrived to be greeted by their teammates and oddly, Sage.

"That was a good match," Ember said simply. "I feel like you could win in a round two, we just caught you two off guard with our abilities."

"Credit yourself a bit, you two are good fighters," Elith said.

"Thanks, Flame," Persi said.

"Don't make me take it back, my name is Elith," Elith replied. "And seriously, stop leering at me." I pulled Elith back to our group because her hand was starting to creep down towards her dust pouch.

"Geez calm down, I'll stop," Persi said, looking away.

"So how do you guys know Sage?" Clara asked in order to change the subject.

"He's my brother, we're from a small town in the north end of Sanus," Ember answered. "How'd you meet him?"

"He beat me to the punch killing a deer," I answered.

"He always was good at stealing kills," Ember said.

"I'm right here," Sage replied.

* * *

Clara, dorms

* * *

We started heading back to the dorms, except for Elith who said she had some friends of hers about to fight. When we reached our dorm there was a box sitting in front of it, Isaac walked up and checked it.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Just something I ordered a while ago," Isaac said vaguely.

"Hey guys, I won't be in for a bit," Erik said. "I have someone to look for."

"Alright, see you in a bit," I responded, he walked off as Isaac lugged his box into our dorm. I entered behind him and grabbed a book from my bedside table to read as I laid down next to Dakota.

"What did you order?" I asked.

"Something stupid that I'll probably never use," Isaac muttered as he withdrew saxophone from the box, I stifled a laugh at the sight.

"I didn't know you played the saxophone." I said. "Sorry for laughing, it's just the last thing I would've expected."

"I don't, which is precisely why this was a stupid purchase," Isaac responded.

"It's only a dumb purchase if you don't try to learn to play," I said helpfully.

"Fair point." He replied with a shrug. I decided to shift the topic to something else that I'd been thinking about.

"Hey, Elith seemed really frustrated this morning," I mentioned.

"In other news, deserts have sand." Isaac joked.

"I was just curious because she got really flustered and defensive about it," I explained. "She generally doesn't respond like that."

"You're as in the dark as I am," Isaac said with a shrug. "The thoughts of Elith's mind are a mystery to all unless she chooses to reveal them."

* * *

Erik, Courtyard

* * *

Something did not feel right, I had a really ominous feeling as though something more wicked than I could anticipate was coming tomorrow. I was tempted to dismiss it as my paranoia getting at me again, I knew that most of the time I'm wrong when I felt like something bad was coming. But with my 'Mom' here and all of the other strange events happening centred on Beacon, I felt like it was risky to wholly dismiss it. I was drawn from my thoughts by a beep of my Vigilantiam, I turned to see Qrow approaching.

"Glad that Atlas scrap is worth a damn." Qrow commented.

"It has definitely been helpful." I replied. "So what do you have to say to flip my world upside down this time?"

"Fresh out of true things, and not enough whiskey in me right now to make something good enough up," Qrow replied simply.

"You and I both know you're lying about that." I accused, he shrugged in response as he grabbed his flask from his side to take a drink.

"So, got any questions for me kid?" Qrow asked.

"You said my mom was someone else, who exactly is this someone else?" I asked.

"Well, about eighteen years back-" Qrow was swiftly interrupted by Ruby's voice.

"Uncle Qrow, Erik!" Ruby sped over to see us, she was accompanied by the rest of team RWBY as well as Elith. Elith looked between me and Qrow and then raise an eyebrow quizzically, knowing what she was asking I nodded back. "What are you two talking about?"

"Just catching up," Qrow replied.

"Can you tell me how you two know each other now?" Ruby asked.

"Well, it's a convoluted story that I don't know the half of." I started. "The short of it, unfortunately, is that he's my dad." Everyone except me, Elith, Blake, and Qrow looked really really surprised.

 **Author's notes**

 **AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. I'm sorry for making you wait three weeks for this trash, my lifes responsibilities have recently been trying to splinter my spinal cord, so that's my excuse for my lateness.**


	45. This way comes

**The poll on my profile still exists, vote please.**

Chapter 45

This way comes

* * *

Clara, Amity stadium

* * *

Yesterday had dragged on, not many interesting things happened except Erik revealing that Qrow was his dad. It had gone over surprisingly well with Ruby, she got over the surprise really quickly and things were practically normal after that. I was sitting on the edge of one of the bullhead docking stations dangling my feet over the edge while I thought about this, looking down at Vale below me.

"I'd tell you to be careful about where you sit, but you've sat in more precarious spots before and been fine." A familiar voice came from behind.

"Are you referring to when I rode a nevermore without any harnessing Dusty?" I asked as Dusty took a seat next to me.

"How've you been Clara, adjusting well to what that psycho did?" Dusty asked.

"Well enough, I get some looks, but the people who matter don't care about the changes," I explained.

"Good to know I don't have to break any kids noses, wouldn't look good on my record." Dusty joked.

"Did you see our matches?" I asked.

"I had to catch the first one on TV, but I managed to see yesterday in person," Dusty explained. "I was getting back from Carvail for a secondary sweep of the town, a check to make sure that cult was fully disbanded."

"Was there anyone left?" I asked.

"Some former members who swore they didn't want to revive the cult because it was pointless without you or Azoth," Dusty said. "Local justice let them go free, so I can only hope those people were honest."

"I hope so too," I said, not wanting to think of what they'd try if they had no Azoth.

"Hey Clara, who's this?" Yang's voice sounded from behind as she sat down next to me as well.

"Oh, this a good friend of mine from Vacuo," I explained.

"The names Dusty, Hunter and occasional field reporter." He stated, holding out his gloved hand to shake Yangs. "Yours?"

"Nice to meet you!" Yang said. "I'm Yang."

"How do you know Clara?' Dusty asked.

"We're dating," Yang said simply.

"Oh, that's nice!" Dusty said. "But I doubt you came down here to be interrogated by me, what'd you want to find Clara for?"

"My match is going to start soon and I was going to remind Clara of that," Yang said.

"Get to the arena then, I'll be in the stands in a moment," I replied, I pulled myself up then Dusty and I headed up to the stands.

* * *

Erik, Amity stadium

* * *

Holy shit, that just happened right in front of me, in front of everyone for that matter. Yang straight up broke that Mercury kids leg, but I had a kind of nagging doubt about the situation. It wasn't that I thought it hadn't happened, it's just that it seemed far too out of character for Yang and Mercury didn't seem to be playing to win in the final moments of that round. Something was up, or maybe my brain was just working itself up over my suspicions about Mercury having some connection to my 'mom'. I mean, Yang hasn't proved to be the calmest or most rational type in combat, so it may not be too far a stretch to say that she may have gotten too caught up in the fight. Whatever the explanation, Mercury was being taken off the field and Yang was being arrested, and every person in the stadium was shooting out a beacon to all nearby Grimm. Clara looked physically ill from how much sensory input she must be getting from being here, right in the middle of the crowd.

"Come on guys, let's go," I said. "This place isn't agreeing with Clara right now." We left the stands and caught a bullhead down with the remainder of team RWBY.

"I can't believe that something like that would happen," Isaac said, Clara and Ruby nodded in agreement.

"It's not impossible," Elith said coldly. "People change, or sometimes hide more sinister parts of who they are."

"She's right, I've seen it before," Blake said.

"I think we don't know the whole story, we shouldn't jump to conclusions," I said. "Something seemed off."

"I agree with Erik on this," Weiss said, the rest of the ride was mostly silent as no one seemed to want to talk about the situation any more than that. Once we got to the dorms we waited in the entry hall and got some drinks while team RWBY talked to Yang, Clara went up to talk to Yang after a bit and the three of us were left sitting at the table.

"Elith you're a good sleuth, did that fight feel a bit off to you?" I asked.

"Like how?" Elith asked.

"It seemed to me like Mercury threw the fight at the end there, and Yang looked surprised before she punched him again," I asked. "I want a second opinion."

"Mercury definitely was catching all Yang's strikes with ease until the end, he seemed to just let the last hits happen," Elith commented. "But I don't catch your point, match thrown or not, Yang attacked him while he was defenceless and unsuspecting."

"I don't know, it just feels unusual to me." I mused.

"It's definitely not a normal situation, so I don't know what you'd expect," Isaac said. "Even if something was actually wrong we'd have a rough time explaining it to the law, I would know."

"How would you know," I asked.

"The short of it was that I was framed for something once," Isaac said simply. "I know that it's not easy to explain yourself when you have enough evidence pitted against you."

* * *

Clara, RWBY dorm

* * *

I came up to their dorm just as Ruby, Blake, and Weiss left the dorm.

"How, how is she doing?" I asked.

"She's doing the best she can," Blake answered, the three of them walked off and I was left outside the dorm under the cold gaze of the two Atlesian Knights standing at the door. Androids scared me, I never knew how they'd interpret my actions, in their eyes, I'm a stranger and going to the door might be interpreted as trying to break Yang out. I tentatively moved towards the door and slowly opened it, the androids didn't seem to care as I walked in.

"Who is it?" Yang asked wearily.

"It's me, Clara," I said.

"Oh, hey," Yang said. "Are you here to hear my side or just to express your shock." I felt offended that she thought I would be like that.

"I want to hear what happened from your side," I said as I sat down.

"I swear Mercury attacked me, he kicked out when my back was turned and I punched him," Yang said, she looked honest but I've always been bad at telling things like that.

"I trust you, at least that you believe that was what happened," I said. "I'm pretty sure Erik's right about the fact that something about that fight was off."

"Tell me about it," Yang muttered.

"Any particular fights you want me to record for you while you're here?" I asked.

"Pyrrha's fight would be nice to see," Yang said.

"Then I'll head back, it won't be too long before that comes around," I said.

"Cat-ch you later Clara," Yang said, at least she could still make me cringe with her puns.

* * *

Isaac, Amity stadium

* * *

"Why are you even selling furniture up here?" I asked the four ex-hunters selling a variety of furniture items with names no one could pronounce. "No one's going to want to lug a table from here to their dorm."

"They don't have to, the furniture is in parts so you take the box down and put the actual thing together when you arrive." The leader named Indigo said.

"I have no idea how that's any better," I said.

"At least you don't have to carry the table in its completed form." The one named Khaki said defensively.

"It's still just as heavy if not more due to the box," I complained.

"Your a Hunter and you're upset by a bit of heavy lifting?" The third one name Eggsy mocked.

"I think you're missing my point, it would be smarter to set up shop down just outside the dorm than on the stadium miles above anything," I explained.

"I'll admit, he makes a point." The last member named Auburn submitted. "It explains why we've sold nothing all competition." The group immediately started bickering with each other about their business plan and I just backed away slowly.

"So did you find out what they were selling," Elith asked as I walked back.

"Boxes of furniture parts for customers to put together later," I explained.

"Isn't the point of buying furniture to not build it yourself?" Elith asked.

"Yes, I didn't say they had a good product," I replied. "Let's get to our seats before we miss Pyrrha's fight."

* * *

Elith, Amity stadium

* * *

I wondered how Penny was able to lift all those swords, there weren't visible connectors and gravity dust was too unstable for that much finesse. Maybe it had to do with her semblance? Regardless of how Penny was doing it, Pyrrha seemed to be having a hard time of it since Penny was in melee range from the other side of the stadium. Penny rained strike after strike on Pyrrha with little resistance, Pyrrha just dodged and dodged. Then Penny changed tactics, lifting all her swords overhead in preparation for a barrage. Then Pyrrha's demeanour changed in a strange way, she went from looking determined and focused to seeming horrified and surprised as Penny knocked Pyrrha's sword and shield away. Penny launched her blades straight at Pyrrha, and she responded by releasing a burst of grey energy. The blast sent all Penny's swords flying back at her, they all missed and swung behind her. Then I got my answer to how Penny controlled her swords as I saw her clothes tighten near where the swords flung by, she used some kind of wire it seemed. But instead of reassuming control of the swords, they kept pulling tighter and I saw that Penny's clothes were starting to tear, scratch that, her body was starting to tear. Before my eyes, Penny was cut into quarters, but there was no blood, just sparks. Penny's insides were robotic, Atlas had placed a robot into the tournament, why would they make one and why put it here? Clara looked deathly ill, I can't blame her since I feel sick and I can't even smell the emotions. Suddenly all the screens in the stadium turned red with the emblem of a queen chess piece, a symbol that reminded me of something.

"Oh fuck this day just gets worse and worse!" Erik shouted. Oh right, that was his Mom's symbol, wasn't it.

"This is not a tragedy. This was not an accident." A voice rang out from every speaker. "This is what happens when you hand over your trust, your safety, your children, to men who claim to be our guardians, but are in reality nothing more than men. Our academies' headmasters wield more power than most armies, and one was audacious enough to control both. They cling to this power in the name of peace, and yet, what do we have here? One nation's attempt at a synthetic army mercilessly torn apart by another's star pupil. What need would Atlas have for a soldier disguised as an innocent little girl? I don't think the Grimm can tell the difference. And what, I ask you, is Ozpin teaching his students? First, a dismemberment, now this? Huntsmen and Huntresses should carry themselves with honour and mercy, yet I have witnessed neither. Perhaps Ozpin felt as though defeating Atlas in the tournament would help people forget his colossal failure to protect Vale when the Grimm invaded its streets. Or perhaps this was his message to the tyrannical dictator that has occupied an unsuspecting kingdom with armed forces. Honestly, I haven't the slightest clue as to who is right and who is wrong, but I know that the existence of peace is fragile, and the leaders of our kingdoms conduct their business with iron gloves. As someone who hails from Mistral, I can assure you the situation there is equally undesirable. Our kingdoms are at the brink of war, yet we, the citizens, are left in the dark. So, I ask you, when the first shots are fired, who do you think you can trust?"

And with that speech done, alarms notifying us of incoming Grimm began blaring out in place of the voice. I looked up to see a giant Nevermore slamming into the shielded roof of the stadium, today really is going horribly. Chaos didn't take long to ensue, people running over each other and leaping over seats to flee to safety.

"Guys, keep it together!" I shouted at my team, they nodded and we carefully started heading down towards the arena. I suspected the forcefield wasn't going to hold up and that we would need to help make sure this nevermore didn't kill any civilians. The Nevermore broke through before we made it and was fighting Ruby and Pyrrha. I noticed that some other people nearby were typing in coordinates on their scrolls, they were calling in the rocket lockers. I pointed it out to my team and then we did the same as everyone else, the Nevermore was rapidly crushed by a barrage of lockers of all things.

"It's not dead, let's get our weapons quickly," Clara said. We all nabbed our weapons just as the Nevermore began to get up again, I froze its wings with some quick dust work so we'd have time to deal with the problem. Everyone else quickly responded, making fast work of cutting off the Nevermores head. I grouped up with my team and we all stood around waiting for something else to happen.

"Okay, at least we have a breather," Isaac said.

"Not for long," Clara said as she pointed up at a swarm of a strange Grimm I'd heard of but never seen before, they looked like a cross of birds and horses. "Can you give me a boost Elith?"

"Yeah," I said, I broke a crystal of wind dust and launched Clara into one of the Griffons. She latched on and rapidly assumed control, she used this one to claim three more and landed them all.

"Let's get out of here, every moment wasted here is a moment for my 'mom' to destroy Vale," Erik said as he leapt onto a Griffon.

* * *

Erik, the sky

* * *

"Clara," I said to the Griffon. "You and I need to go to Beacon to help with defence there, send Isaac and Elith to Vale." The Griffon nodded as I saw Isaac and Elith's rides split from our group. It didn't take long to reach Beacon, Clara landed our Grimm outside the dorms and killed them for her aura back.

"I'm going to go get Yang and Dakota, what are you going to do?" Clara asked.

"Help wherever I can, as best I can," I replied. "And try to stop my mom while I'm at it." Clara nodded in response and rushed into the dorms.

 **Author's notes**

 **Cinder's awful, but she makes good speeches. Also, Griffons are basically the perfect Grimm for Clara to control; easy to ride, flying, and decently deadly Grimm.**


	46. Loss

**Last chance, there is still a poll up on my profile that'll let you influence the story.**

Chapter 46

Loss

* * *

Clara, Dorms

* * *

As I ran through the halls, my mind was continuing to try and piece together what was going on now. The smells of fear and shock were beginning to bother me a bit less, they were still there but I was getting accustomed to them. What was Erik's mom plotting, I knew she wanted him back home but for some reason, I feel as though that's not the whole reason that she's leading a massive assault on the entirety of Vale. As I passed by a window I saw a bullhead up and open up to reveal a squad of white fang, of course they've gotten involved. Suddenly someone slammed into me and we fell to the ground, it was Yang.

"Whats going on Clara?" She asked, helping me up.

"Chaos, Beacon's under attack and that's all I know," I explained. "I'm getting Dakota, you go help out."

"Stay safe," Yang said.

"That's hard during a siege." I joked as I continued forward. My dorm was just around the corner and I quickly unlocked it to be greeted by my distressed Beowolf. "Down Dakota, come with me." With Dakota at my heels I looked around the room for anything that could be helpful or worth having if this situation went even further downhill, I decided to grab Azoth's journal and Elith's wallet that she invariably forgets in the dorm. I also retrieved dust from everyone's belongings, every bit would help.

I made my way out of the dorm hall and into the courtyard where I was greeted by Sage and Misty squaring off with seven white fang grunts. They all noticed me, and the leader of the squad pointed towards me and began to speak.

"Hey, you don't have to fight us!" The leader called. "Why not help us kill these two scum, give humans what's been coming to them?"

"Sorry, but I don't help hypocrites," I said simply as I withdrew my sniper rifle and fired two shots into him, starting the fray. Misty immediately took advantage of the surprise and slashed her knives across the leader's throat, killing him. Sage covered her by nocking and firing three arrows and hitting two grunts that were about to strike Misty. I broke down my rifle into my two swords and rushed in, running another grunt through with both of them. The last two began fleeing, Misty pounced one of them and Sage caught the other in the throat.

"I got three!" Sage called, Misty responded by holding up two fingers. "Then you'd better catch up."

"What?" I asked.

"It's a game our team has, now's not the time to explain," Sage replied. "We should probably look for more places to help out." I nodded and ran off, aimlessly searching for a place to help out and for Yang in particular.

* * *

Isaac, Vale

* * *

I jumped off my Griffon and cut off its head, Elith did the same since we knew Clara would need aura up at Beacon.

"It would've been nice to be asked where we wanted to go," I said.

"Get over it, we're here so let's look for a place to help out," Elith said. A large flash of light lit up the night not far from here, that was probably Robin if I had to guess. "That seems like a good place to start." We ran towards the street that the light had come from and saw a giant Death Stalker and a huge Ursa facing off with Robin and Liath, there was rubble from ruined storefronts littering the street.

"I'll squash this bug, you go wrestle the bear light bulb," Liath called.

"The names Robin," Robin replied.

"Did I ask?" Liath replied as he rushed to the Deathstalker. The monster lashed out with its stinger but Liath just ducked under it and slashed up at the tail, damaging it heavily. I decided to pitch in and slashed at the scorpion's legs, managing to cleave one of them off and leaving it unbalanced.

"Screw off and get your own kill!" Liath shouted as he repeatedly slammed the pommel of his claymore into the deathstalkers face. I responded by cleaving one more leg off and then leaving to help Robin, meanwhile, Elith was keeping an eye out. As I reached Robin she was burning the Ursa with highly focused light, but the beam was hardly slowing down the assault of the monstrosity. I loaded one of my grenades with ice dust and hurled it at the Ursa, freezing a large portion of its body. Robin took advantage and raised her axe in an overhead cleave, cutting the Ursa's frozen left leg off. I joined and used two shots from my knixes to break off the other leg, causing the front of the beast to crash down. Robin finished it by splitting the head open with her axe.

"Nine," Robin muttered. I turned to see that Liath was now violently beating the Deathstalker into the ground with his claymore, which now had a large piece of rubble attached to it. It didn't take long for the beast to dissipate, Liath looked extremely pleased with himself.

"Bad news guys!" Elith called. "There is a massive number of Creeps heading this way, more than I believe we can handle." I ran over and saw that she was correct, there was a horde of them rushing to our position.

"Elith, Liath and I could outrun them, I'm not so sure about Robin though given her armour," I said.

"I can hold them while you guys run," Liath said simply. "Just get going now."

"That's suicide Liath, don't be an idiot," Elith said.

"I'll be fine, you guys won't be unless you go now," Liath replied. "Don't have me make you."

"This is stupid Liath come o-" Suddenly I forgot what I was saying, Liath completely fled my mind as if he'd never existed.

"Come on guys, let's go now!' Robin said.

"No sense in waiting," Elith said, with that, we fled as I saw the creeps swarm around something in the alley, why weren't they following us? "They seem distracted, maybe the three of us can get out after all."

* * *

Erik, Beacon

* * *

It was impossible to tell what was going on, Atlas bots were shooting Grimm, the white fang was wreaking havoc, and hunters were just trying to survive the fights. A white fang grunt rushed me, I sidestepped and tripped him. I wasted no time getting on top of them and pressing Homicida to his neck, I needed some answers.

"What is going on, who's in charge, and what's the goal?" I asked them.

"I'll die before I-" I pressed the sword to his neck to draw some blood. "Fine! We're destroying Beacon and Vale because we got hired to, didn't hurt that it aligned with our ideas."

"Who's in charge here?" I asked.

"Our leader Adam, and some lady named Cinder!" He explained. "Can you let me go now?" I removed his mask and broke it, then I cut his gun in half.

"Get out of here," I said as I got up. "You're a face in the crowd now, watch out for shots from your friends." The faunus started stumbling away and making his exit, meanwhile, I began looking for two things, 'Cinder' and anywhere I could help out. I found the latter in moments, seeing Ivory back to back with Argus as they fended off a pack of Beowolves. Ivory's bow was on the ground outside the circle of pacing beasts, leaving her and Argus to stick to defence rather than one attacking and one covering. I rushed in and swiped Ivory's bow off the ground and threw it into the ring.

"Ivory, catch!" I shouted. She looked up to see her bow and immediately vanished, appearing in the air with the bow in her grasp. She landed on the back of one of the Beowolves and wasted no time stabbing it through the eye with an arrow. Argus took the opportunity retract his shield and grip his sword with two hands, the handle quickly extended outwards and his sword became a glaive. He rushed one of the Grimm and ran it through with the glaive, killing it instantly. I reached the fight and swiftly cleaved the head of another Beowolf off, then I ducked just in time to dodge a swipe from another beast. I quickly traced the circle on Invicta and it burst into its buckler form, enabling me to bash away another swipe. Meanwhile, Ivory had both blinded the beowolf she rode and anchored herself on it by jabbing two arrows into its eyes, the monster was slashing wildly as she steered it into others.

"Look at me, I'm Clara!" Ivory joked.

"Stop screwing around!" Argus shouted as he stabbed his glaive through a monsters head. "A siege is not something to jest about."

"Fine." She replied as she slammed her palm into one of the arrows, sending it through the beast's head. Only two Beowolves remained, I switched to Homicida's whip form and slammed it into the nearest beast, wrapping it around the left leg. I pulled hard and shredded the leg and forcing it to fall over, an arrow quickly struck it right between the eyes. Argus finished the last one by crushing its head with his shield.

"Thanks for the help Erik," Argus said.

"No problem, have you seen a black haired woman anywhere," I asked. "She might be accompanied by a green-haired girl and a grey-haired guy."

"I think I glimpsed some people like that on a rooftop not far from here." Ivory said, pointing towards a building near Ozpin's tower.

"Thanks, I have someone to say hello to," I replied.

* * *

Elith, Vale

* * *

We had run for two minutes before we decided to take a rest, then suddenly I remembered something.

"Wait, where's Liath?" I asked. "I could've sworn he was with us."

"You're right, I thought he wasn't but I swear I remember him being there before we ran," Robin replied.

"Then where'd he go?" Isaac asked. I thought hard, try to recall what had been going on just moments ago, he'd offered to stay behind and then I suddenly drew blanks on where he was. Before I could ponder further, I heard someone land near me and I looked to see Carter had just dropped in.

"Whats up guys, have any of you spotted Liath anywhere?" Carter asked. "I know Ivory and Argus are at Beacon, but Liath should be around here."

"We're trying to find that out now, we just ran from a situation that we swear he was at," I explained. "But we all draw blanks on where he was when we started running."

"Shit, I think he used his semblance to try and play at being a hero." Carter groaned.

"What do you mean 'his semblance', I don't think he can make people forget things with his muscles," I replied.

"The muscle things not a semblance I think, it's more like a trick he's figured out how to do with aura," Carter explained. "His actual semblance is focus manipulation, he can make people pay more or less attention to him essentially."

"So he just made himself seem unimportant to us, so we'd run and leave him to the Creeps?" Isaac asked. "With that many of them taken on alone, he's probably…"

"Dead." I finished for him.

"Damnit, don't give up hope like that," Carter growled. "Liath doesn't go down easy, but there's no time to search now."

"We need to keep clearing this place out, every kill counts," I said.

* * *

?, Vale

* * *

I peeked outside to survey the screaming, looking out onto the streets to see Grimm chasing down people and members of the white fang wrecking havoc.

"Oh how quaint, they think it's smart to besiege a kingdom." I joked.

"Who's attacking." One of the twins asked, I wasn't even going to bother figuring out which.

"White Fang and some Grimm, an appropriate fighting team really," I said.

"Yeah both are animals, they'll have a tough time of it destroying a kingdom." The other twin stated.

"Even if they destroy the kingdom, this hardly helps them in the long-term." My daughter noted. "They've attacked a kingdom, so now everyone will hate faunus just that much more."

"Isn't it such fun when the enemy screws themselves over." I submitted.

"Very." The first twin said. I closed the window and turned up the music we'd been playing to cover up the screams and explosions. "So, back to the subject at hand."

"I've not yet found a good candidate, it's a large town and I'm having trouble locating a similar faunus." My daughter said.

* * *

Clara, Beacon

* * *

I passed by a few fights that seemed well handled, then I noticed something, Atlas bots were shooting at hunters and huntresses, what's going on here? My attention was pulled from that thought as a large grating noise sounded in front of me, a massive mech had arrived before me, and did not seem particularly friendly.

"Uh-oh," I muttered as a barrage of missiles launched from its back, I swiftly rolled out of the way as the spot I'd been standing in became a crater in moments. Dakota wasted no time leaping out at the mech, tackling it and setting it slightly off balance. I took a moment to check for kinks the armour, unfortunately, I saw little to none so I decided to set to work on its left arm. I clipped a wind crystal into my swords, causing zephyrs to begin swirling about my blades. I ran over to the mech and experimentally slashed out at it arm, my blade clanged uselessly against the bot but the swipe was followed by a massive gust of wind. The wind blew the arm back and made the mech stumble, I didn't relent and released a few more blasts of wind until it fell over. Then it retaliated, flinging Dakota off of itself and beginning to get up. I prepared to swing again but found myself not needing too, the mech was slammed back to the floor and its arm began to be pulled off by an invisible force. I turned to see just who I expected, Cadet walking forward with his hands extended. The arm was quickly torn off and slammed repeatedly into the machine's head, ending its functionality.

"These things are going to take my aura out more than these attackers, I swear," Cadet stated. "But it takes less aura to do that than take them one on one I guess."

"I had that," I replied.

"You don't get a gift card if you kill more than your teammates though, so you didn't need that kill anyways," Cadet said.

"I won't even ask," I replied. "Have you seen Yang anywhere?"

"The blonde girl?" Cadet asked. "She went that way." He pointed towards a burning building in the distance.

"Thanks," I replied, then I set out towards the building. It didn't take me long to get to the side of the collapsing building. I saw Blake pulling Yang out of the building, and Yang was missing an arm.

"What happened Blake, what happened!" I said, panicked.

"Get out of here Clara!" Blake said. "We have to go!" I looked into the building and saw a slim man wearing a Grimm mask and holding a blood red sword calmly approaching. If he chose to speed up, Blake would have no chance of escaping while carrying Yang.

"I'll stall them, Blake, run and I'll catch up," I said.

"Clara don't, just help me get Yang out of!" Blake pleaded. "Don't fight Adam."

"Just go, we wouldn't outrun him," I said, Blake gave up and made her exit. I could've sworn Yang was muttering something as they left. I turned to face 'Adam'.

"I didn't expect to meet a Lynn here," Adam said. "My good fortune I suppose, but what's a Lynn doing defending hopeless humans in a hunters school?"

"How do you know my last name," I said.

"Your looks, you look similar to your mother aside from the red in your eyes and the paler skin," Adam said. "So I'd hope you'd be as smart as her, she was a fierce supporter of our ideals when she was with the white fang."

"I don't care what my mother thought, she's a fool if she thought this was the right thing to do," I replied. "This kind of display isn't going to give faunus equality."

"We aren't aiming for equality, imagine a world where faunus are the rulers of man!" Adam said. "Join us and strive for that future."

"Fuck you and your superiority complex, no one should own anyone," I said.

"Very well," Adam said calmly as he raised his blade, the sword swooped down faster than I could dodge. But a white blur rapidly got in the way, Dakota knocked me over and I saw the blade cleanly slice through Dakota's face. The blade cut Dakota almost perfectly in half, and I saw the blue glow fade from his eyes. The body did not dissipate, instead, the bleeding corpse of Dakota lay on the ground. I got on my knees and was too shocked to speak, I could only stare at the corpse. Adam walked up to me and sheathed his sword, what was he playing at?

"I'll let you live, consider what I've said though," Adam said. "Join us, do what's right Lynn." I hardly registered his words, but my shock was turning into a shaking rage as I pulled myself up to face him. He was no longer there, his presence was replaced by sixteen Beowolves.

 **Author's notes**

 **NaNoWriMo Is over, I didn't beat it but I still got a good number of words in before it ended. I hope you all had a good November and none of you got too impatient over the lack of updates.**


	47. The Queen of nothing and the split Jack

Chapter 47

The Queen of nothing and the split Jack

* * *

Isaac, Vale

* * *

The four of us ran through the alley we'd lost Liath in as we ran for the plaza, all of the storefronts were fully rubble and it looked as though the road had collapsed downwards.

"This doesn't look good," Elith noted.

"You don't know, maybe Liath knocked the rubble down on them to kill them all," Carter said defensively.

"He's strong, but I don't think he could pull something like this," I said. "There's a chance he's alive though."

"Liath, where are you!" Carter shouted out, no response came within the minute.

"Sorry to be the cold one here, but we can't spend more time here," Elith stated.

"She's right, there's a siege going on," Robin said. "If he's alive we'll find him later and thank him for saving our asses." Carter didn't seem happy about it, but relented and went on with us. The moment we walked out from the alleyway I had to jump back as a hail of bullets zipped into the wall next to us. I looked up to see a squad of Atlesian knights aiming their guns at me, a red glow emanated from their faces.

"They've been hacked, watch out!" I called out. "This is precisely why I don't like robotic soldiers!" Robin leapt out and raised her shield, covering us as we advanced with her. The moment we got close enough Elith made a clone appear behind the robots and start lopping off heads.

"Aim for the heads, quickest way is to destroy the heads," Elith called. Robin responded by cleaving six heads off with a fell swoop of her axe. I jumped out and fired off two shotgun blasts from my knixes, knocking out three. I took a few hits and saw a few cling uselessly against Robin, sometimes I wish I wore at least some armour, if only I didn't value mobility so much. Carter burst out from behind Robin last, grabbing one of the Knights by its leg and swinging it into two others. The Elith clone lopped off the head of the last one and sighed as it sheathed its Sanguinems.

"That went well, a smart move putting me behind them." The clone said.

"Thanks," Elith replied.

"I've never seen your clones speak before," I said to Elith.

"When it's just one clone it's practically autonomous and retains personality," Elith said.

"Better for strategy and occasionally distracting people." The clone pitched in.

"I'm weirded out right now," Robin said.

"I thought it was just me," Carter replied. Moving on from the unnerving matter, we all started going on the move again.

* * *

Clara, Beacon

* * *

I clenched my fists, glaring past the Beowolves toward the dark figure making their way down the road. I didn't know whether I wanted to kill him, beat him, or get him to tell me about my mother, this rage mixed with a few other thoughts and emotions was clouding my thoughts. I took a step towards Adam and the Beowolves all pounced me at once, slamming me to the ground in a dogpile.

"You won't stop me!" I shouted as I pushed back against the beasts, a sudden blast of blue light surged from me and all of the Beowolves got off of me. They all looked at me expectantly, each and every one of them with icy blue eyes.

"How did I, I didn't touch all of you though?" I thought as I began to feel weary, I looked down at my aura counter to see the count **0/0**. I reached for my swords in a panic, but a small voice bade me stop. Why would I kill my pack, there are so many scents they can help remove. I looked up and saw a group of things wearing masks of Grimm, like the Azoth, but the Azoth was dead and I had nothing to fear of it. Now they are fair game to seek out like anything else. I kicked off from the floor and sped off towards the creatures and my pack ran with me, they didn't even hear us approaching. Each of us pounced one of the creatures, I slammed into one of the smaller ones and pinned them to the ground. Thinking of it now, I didn't know what I'd planned to do if I got my hands on one of these things, how would I make it stop reeking of fear? I looked at my pack and saw that they were biting at the throats of the creatures, seemed worth a try.

"What are you?!" The fear reeking creature below me babbled in gibberish. I pulled its head back and bit at the exposed neck, my teeth piercing easier than I'd expected. It didn't take long at all for the scent of fear to leave the creature, none of its group reeked anymore either.

"Clara?" I heard being shouted out, I turned to see a black haired creature running towards me. I looked at it, it reeked of panic with some fear and anger. I rushed at the creature, ready to remove the smell. "Shit!" It shouted, it pointed something at one of my pack members and a loud noise sounded out. I suddenly felt something come back, some indescribable feeling of restoration.

I looked around, when did I take over all these Beowolves? Why my mouth taste metallic, I don't feel like I have a mouth wound? When did Erik get here, and where'd Adam go. Then I recalled what had just happened, the strange burst of light and how I bit into that man's throat…

"Clara, are you okay?" Erik asked.

"No, another person's blood is in my mouth because I bit out their throat!" I said as I quickly removed my aura from all of the Beowolves out of fear of returning to that state. "Emotionally, I am in no way okay right now Erik!"

"I saw, I'm so sorry I couldn't have stopped you from doing that," Erik said. "How'd you let yourself take over that many?"

"I didn't try, there was this flash of blue light and they all got taken in moments," I explained. "I think my semblance upgraded at the worst possible time."

"Shit, at least I was here to snap you out of it," Erik said.

"Yeah, thank you," I said, as I tried to find water to wash out my.

"Are you in good enough shape to come with me, Clara?' Erik asked.

"Yeah, my aura's back and I'm good to go," I replied.

"Where's Dakota, I thought you went to get him?" Erik asked, and I pointed back to the burning building where the corpse lay.

"Oh, I'm sorry that happened," Erik asked,

"Let's just get going," I said.

"Alright, I think I know where we'll find one of the assault leaders," Erik stated.

"Let's get the bastard then," I growled.

* * *

Elith, Vale

* * *

I lopped the head off another Atlesian knight, they just kept coming in greater numbers than even the Grimm. Thankfully they were more annoying than dangerous thanks to our aura and their cheaply mass-produced arms and ammunition, finally, the stinginess of Atlesian corporations did something good for the world. That was the last of that squad though, and there was now a moment to take a breath and prepare for the next fight.

"Anyone have dust?" I asked. "I left most of mine in my dorm, didn't expect to have to fight in a whole siege today."

"I always have powdered dust on me, how much do you need," Isaac said.

"A fistful of lightning dust please," I said, I reached out my hand and he filled it with dust. "Thanks." I then turned to my clone and had it come closer.

"Let me guess, you want to make me a walking bomb?" It asked, I nodded as I started infusing the clone with the lightning dust.

"It won't be particularly powerful with this much, but you'll make a good EMP I guess," I said.

"That's fair, we are facing some robots as well so it's not the worst thing we could work with." The clone replied.

"Can you please stop talking to yourself, it's really unnerving," Robin said.

"Okay. fine." I replied. As I finished up my work a new noise began to enter the area, a loud grating sound of something heavy being dragged along the ground. I looked up to see three White Fang members. One was a tall bull Faunus with a tail and heavy armour, he was dragging a large warhammer on the ground. There was a snake Faunus with fangs wearing light armour and wielding two sickle, chains tied the sickles to her wrists. The last one was a puma faunus who seemed to have exceptionally sharp claws, he wore light clothing but seemed unprotected.

"Oh joy, this lot doesn't look like grunts," Isaac commented.

"Really, I thought they looked just like all the others," I replied, I looked up to see that we'd been spotted. The bull faunus raised his arm and pointed at me, suddenly everything went black for a moment. Vision returned almost instantly and I found myself directly in front of the bull faunus, this was an unexpected turn of events now wasn't it. He swung his hammer at me, I dodged only to still be hit by the handle of the hammer anyways. I crossed my Sanguinems to catch the next blow coming down, I managed to catch the hammer at the cost of some bad nicks on my blade. Suddenly I heard the rattle of chains as the snake's sickles wrapped around my blades and began trying to wrest it from my grasp, then the bull faunus placed a foot on my chest to keep me from rolling away. I managed to use the weight of the hammer to keep my Sanguinems in my grasp for a moment, but then the bull caught on and raised his hammer and my blades quickly flew from my grasp. The bull grinned before swinging the hammer at me once more, I fruitlessly tried to roll out of the way before bracing for impact. It never hit though, Isaac sped into view and caught the hammer with his knixes. Isaac then kicked the bull faunus to make him stumble off of me, allowing me to get up and look to the snake who'd taken my Sanguinems. She was holding them and using them to fend off Carter, she was wielding them like she'd trained with them before. Fortunately I had a second set of Sanguinems, unfortunately, I could only use them through my clone. I sent my clone to try and get the drop on the snake faunus as I returned my attention to the bull, who I feel is the more dangerous player here seeing as he clearly has a semblance and thereby aura.

I won't be able to do much without dust or weapons though, shit. I should really have put dust in my locker at some point, that would have been wise to do. Oh well, the past is the past and it doesn't help to fret about it when you're in an intense combat situation where you're absolutely useless due to said past. I was pulled from my thoughts as I realised my clone had wrested my blades from the snake, they tossed them back to me and I caught them. Then I rushed to help Isaac, I came up behind the bull and slashed at them. This surprised him, they must've thought I was still disarmed, and he twirled around to face me only to be struck by Isaac who was now behind him. The bull ignored Isaac and swung down at me and knocked my blades to the ground, he kept going from there and slammed the hammer into the blades. He raised his hammer to reveal my Sanguinems were splintered badly, split into five large pieces and numerous smaller splinters.

"You. Sack. Of. Shit." I said angrily, I grabbed the jagged handle of one of my Sanguinems and lept up onto the bull Faunus. I grabbed onto his shirt to keep myself level to him as I began repeatedly stabbing at him until I saw the shimmer of his aura failing, then I flipped the hilt and slammed the pommel into his head until he began to topple. He fell to the ground, blacked out and heavily bruised.

"Remind me to never piss you off, that was the third most terrifying thing I've ever seen," Isaac said.

"Only the third?" I asked as I prepared to go help Robin deal with thepuma.

* * *

Erik, Beacon

* * *

I approached the building that Ivory had pointed out to me, sure enough, I could see people on the roof and I could make out green hair on one of them. Before Clara and I could enter, I felt a massive rumble as though the earth itself was tearing apart. I heard a roar far, far in the distance that sounded like no creature I had ever even heard of before in my life.

"What was that noise?" Clara asked, I noticed her ears had twitched when that roar had sounded, not a wince of pain but more like they were perking up in interest.

"I don't know, and I feel like I don't want to find out," I replied, then we both entered the building and made haste upstairs.

"No seriously, that roar was, it made me feel weird," Clara said. "What about you?"

"By weird do you mean afraid," I asked.

"Sort of, but there was something else I couldn't put my finger on," Clara said.

"No, I just got fear out of it," I replied. "We can talk about this later." I pressed forward, reaching the roof access and pushing it open. I was greeted by the sight of Mercury, Emerald, and 'Cinder', looking out onto the chaos with Mercury holding a phone that seemed to be broadcasting. I wasn't unbelievably surprised to see Mercury up and about, it made sense that even the broken leg was part of this whole act.

"Hey, mom!" I shouted angrily. "If I should even grace you by calling you that." Cinder turned to take a look at me, before chuckling a little bit to herself.

"I wonder Erik, did you put that together yourself or did you need someone to drop by and tell you that?" Cinder said. "It's not a hard conclusion, with my age I must have been eight or nine when you were born."

"It doesn't matter how I found out, it matters why you pretended or did it in the first," I said.

"I did it because I was told to, and because your own mother was far too busy to get involved." Cinder explained/

"Who ordered you to raise me?" I asked.

"You'll meet them soon enough." Cinder said. "Emerald, Mercury, take them alive she has plans for both of them after all."

Before I could protest, Cinder leapt from the building and down to the streets below and her little henchmen quickly got between us and the edge.

"Get back here you coward!" I yelled, but to no avail. I drew Homicida and readied for battle, and Clara spun her gauntlets about.

"Out of our way," Clara growled at them.

"Make us, I don't see any pets with you right now Grimm girl." Emerald retorted. Clara didn't hesitate after that, she slammed her gauntlet into the roof and a shockwave burst out with spikes of jagged rock accompanying it. It took Emerald off guard and sent her flying off the roof, leaving only Mercury for the moment as he had dodged out of the way. I quickly traced Invicta's diamond to make it a kite shield, I felt that deflection was better than withstanding for this guy. Mercury kicked out and a blast of force shot out at me, but I used my semblance and everything slowed to a crawl. I adjusted my shield and prepared it to send it right back, as time sped up again I saw the blast hit my shield and launch into the ground under Mercury. He rolled away from the burst, but Clara gave him no breathing room as she leapt at him and punched him. A large jet of water knocked Mercury off the roof, but then he fired whatever device was on his leg and launched himself back up. Now he was joined by Emerald, who did not seem happy about being knocked off earlier. Emerald rushed to me immediately and I swung Homicida at her, but the blade harmlessly passed through her.

"Don't swing at empty air." I heard her say from behind me as she repeatedly fired both her guns into my back, knocking me down. Meanwhile, I could see Mercury and Clara having a somewhat evenly matched fight, but this situation didn't seem to be going well at all.

Then we were all distracted by a sound, the same strange roar from before but much more close and terrifying now. I looked up to see a massive Grimm with great leathery wings, an inky black chest dropping something down onto the streets, and two clawed legs. It looked like a Wyvern out of some fantasy story, except made to be a Grimm and thereby leagues more terrifying. The great beast crashed into Ozpin's tower and curled around it, and seemed to be intent on something or someone within it. I dragged myself back to the fight, everyone was still a bit stunned so I swiftly swung my legs out and knocked Emerald down. I felt contact and heard her fall, then I turned and began ruthlessly striking out with Homicida and letting no opportunity of escape reach Emerald. I felt I was on the verge of besting her, but then I was kicked to the ground by Mercury and was set back to square one. I looked up to see that Clara was still ok, she thankfully was fine and Mercury had merely fled that fight.

"Can the two of you just let up already, you're both goi-" Mercury started, but a great crash sounded and I looked up to see that the Wyvern had broken off the top of the tower and I could see fires starting up there. Once again there was a momentary distraction that I chose to take advantage of, I ran over to Clara and tackled her. We both fell over the edge and slammed into the ground below, I felt my aura was on the verge of breaking but I didn't care about that.

"Let's get out of here, come on!" I say to Clara as we both right ourselves and get moving. I looked back at the tower one last time to see a massive flash of white light blast out from it, spilling as though it had physical weight.

 **Author's notes**

 **The human throat is tasty, I don't care what anyone else says about it.**


	48. Collapse

Chapter 48

Collapse

Elith, Vale

All of the White Fang were pulling out of the city, their job evidently complete after that Wyvern thing had broken apart the tower and caused some kind of giant flash. What was even going on at this point, myths breaking apart towers, the White Fang attacking a kingdom, and a hunter academy falling to Grimm.

"With the way things are clearing up here, I think we should go help with chaos seems to be going on up there." I said. "Wouldn't hurt to make sure Erik and Clara are okay."

"Agreed." Robin said, Carter just nodded. We started running towards where I could see Bullheads descending from Vale, we could catch one with how fast they're moving. I kept my eyes peeled for Grimm or Atlesian knights as we went, but thankfully saw none of them on our way. We managed to reach the ships just as one started to depart, I leapt into the Bullhead and held out my hand to help up Isaac, Carter, Robin, and lastly my clone.

"What are you kids doing, this is for evac from Beacon not to." The pilot suddenly said.

"Do we look like kids to you?" Carter asked. "Get us to Beacon." The pilot asked no more questions as the Bullhead quickly rose up, the ride was quiet for a mere moment before I saw a flock of Griffons Making their way to us.

"Shit, just what we needed," Isaac said as he loaded shotgun shells into his Knixes.

"Pilot, can you get us above the flock?" I asked.

"For a moment, it won't be for long though." The pilot replied.

"I won't need long," I said as the bullhead rapidly rose upward, drawing the Griffon to flock beneath us for a moment. Then I shoved my clone off of the Bullhead, straight into the flock. They instantly grabbed at the clone to tear it to shreds, but the clone did the job themselves as they suddenly erupted into multiple arcs of electricity. This stunned and damaged the Griffons enough to make them plummet into the ground below, keeping them away from us.

"Smart move Elith, good job," Robin said.

"Thanks," I replied.

It didn't take long to reach Beacon, and what we saw when we got there was hardly good. Almost everything was in ruin or on fire, people were lined up for evacuation and many people were injured or possibly dead. I scanned around, seeing some familiar faces but not seeing Clara or Erik anywhere.

"Carter, there you are!" I heard Ivory's voice sound out as she teleported in front of him, giving him a quick hug. "How are things shaping up in Vale, hopefully, better than here."

"Things are stabilizing, we came here to see how we could help," Carter replied.

"Not much to be done here, I hate to say that there's not much hope for Beacon right now," Argus said as he walked up to the conversation. "Where's Liath?"

"He's…" Carter started, clearly knowing what to say, but not wanting to.

"He died saving our asses," Robin said, none of team LIAC seemed to know how to respond to that, they were simply silent for a bit.

"Have any of you seen Erik and Clara?" Isaac asked.

"I saw Erik, he was looking for three people and I sent him to them." She pointed towards a building near Ozpin's demolished tower. "He was headed to that roof last we saw him."

"Thanks, we have to go find them," I said, Isaac and I started to run off into Beacon just as I saw the most relieving sight of my life. It was Clara and Erik riding an Ursa towards me, Clara weakly raised her hand to wave as she approached.

"Elith, Isaac!" Clara shouted. "You two are okay!" She leapt off of her Ursa and crashed right into me to give me a hug, then she gave Isaac one as well. I noted that Erik wasn't moving to get off the Ursa, or moving at all for that matter.

"Is Erik alright?" I asked, hoping he was just tired or even wounded, I just hoped the answer wasn't what I expected.

"He's hurt, unconscious actually," Clara explained. "A piece of rubble knocked him out as we were running here and I had to hitch a ride, I guess it worked out because it let me retrieve something else as well." Clara killed the Ursa and caught Erik as he fell, then she set him down and grabbed something else that had fallen.

"Is that Dakota?" Isaac asked.

"Yeah, he was killed by some man named Adam," Clara said, clenching her fists.

"I'm sorry to hear that Clara," I said, not knowing what else to say.

Clara, Bacon

The three of us shared what had happened to us as we walked, two Elith clones carried Dakota and another carried Erik. I was slightly distracted though, I was scanning the area for Yang and Blake. Eventually, I decided they'd gone to Vale and sat down to recant my part of the story, choosing to leave out my lapse into zero aura for now.

"We should get down to Vale, it's not safe to stay here," Isaac said, standing up.

"I agree, I don't want to stay here too much longer." I agreed, we got ourselves into a Bullhead and made our way down to Vale. As we descended Erik's eyes started fluttering open and he raised his hands up to his head, touching where the rubble had hit him.

"I'm guessing I have Clara to thank for my life?" Erik asked.

"Yeah, you really need to quit getting knocked out," Isaac said.

"Three times now, it's becoming a pattern." Elith joked, Erik grinned weakly at the joke and closed his eyes.

"Wake me up when you guys stop being assholes," Erik said.

"You'll be asleep for a good while Erik." I joked. "You might never wake up if those are your conditions." The ride was quiet for the rest of the way, then we dismounted into Vale. It did seem mostly stable, Grimm were being driven out and killed in droves and it seemed the Atlas bots had been eliminated as a threat. People were already working to fix damages, I could see Glynda putting rubble back together and not too far from here I saw Dusty. Dusty was binding rubble with his chains to drag them into piles, he stopped his work when he noticed us though.

"Clara, you good to see you and your own are alright," Dusty said. "I wasn't worried though, you guys are a durable group."

"Yep, if there's something we do best it's taking hits at least." Erik joked, Dusty laughed a bit at that.

"Yeah, but I've seen you lot dish out some good hits as well," Dusty said back. "There's a safe zone set up at the docks, rest up there and I'll meet up with you guys."

"Alright, stay safe," I said, then we started off for the safe zone.

Erik, safe zone

As we walked my head began to hurt less as my aura came back and I started thinking about what's been going on, and my mind happened upon a significant question.

"Where are we going to go after this?" I asked out loud. "We don't have dorms or a school for that matter, do any of us have a home to fall back on."

"I'm dead if I try going home," Isaac said.

"I'm too old to go back to the orphanage," Clara explained.

"My dad exiled me from the household, so I don't have anywhere specific to go," Elith said.

"So essentially we're all homeless right now." I summed up, everyone nodded. "I'm tempted to ask what else could go wrong, but today's a bad day to make statements like that.

"At least we have each other, that's worth a lot." Isaac submitted. "Leagues better than splitting up honestly."

"That's a nice sentiment, but I'd rather think on here and now at the moment," Elith stated. "Now's not the time to get worked up over the aftermath."

"She's right, let's get to safety first." I submitted, and we all made our way to the docks to find that they were already quite crowded with hunters and civilians alike. Clara was looking about anxiously, probably for Yang.

"Why are you so concerned, I'm sure Yang's fine," I assured her.

"She was missing an arm when I last saw her Erik, define fine." Clara retorted.

"Not being dead." Elith supplied, probably thinking that was a helpful submission. The conversation was interrupted as Blake popped out from the shadows, seeming in a hurry to get out of the crowd.

"Blake, where'd you leave Yang?" Clara asked, Blake just pointed towards a ferry getting ready to depart and continued on her way. What's her deal, shouldn't she be staying near her injured teammate? Clara immediately started towards the boat and we followed suit, not wanting to lose track of each other.

Isaac, ferry to Patch

We'd found Yang on the boat and managed to get aboard before it left, Mr Xiao Long was there as well for obvious reasons. The boat was joined by Qrow carrying an unconscious Ruby on board not long after we boarded, team RWBY does not seem to have the best of luck today. The boat departed and quietly sailed off towards Patch, I moved to the back of the fairy to look out at Vale.

"What are you doing over here Isaac?" Elith asked, coming up behind me and tapping my shoulder.

"I felt like I was interrupting the situation over there, I'm not involved with Yang or related to her family so it felt odd," I explained.

"Makes sense," Elith said. "I was feeling awkward back there as well."

"Today is by far the second shittiest day of my life," I noted.

"On the other hand, it's been disillusioning," Elith said. "Now that we know kingdoms aren't safe havens anymore, we know to be prepared to defend ourselves."

"So much crazy shit has happened today, I hardly know where to start," I said.

"Well, I'll start by thanking you for saving my life earlier," Elith said. "When you got between me and the bull faunus, that could have been a dangerous circumstance."

"Don't thank me, thanking me means you expected less from me," I said half-jokingly. "Never think I won't do the best I can to help you guys."

"Never think that I won't thank you for that." Elith countered, giving me a hug. The hug lasted for some time before she backed up and gave a small sigh. Silence passed over us as we looked out towards Vale, fires still burning in Beacon above it. It was a sad sight, I hadn't been there very long but Beacon was already a place that meant something to me. At least almost all my friends came out of this still breathing, poor Liath…

"I don't want to stay in Patch," I said to Elith.

"Why not?" She asked.

"I should be in Vale to help with recovery and reconstruction," I explained. "Vale is in greater need than Patch."

"I'll come with you when you head back," Elith said. "Erik and Clara will probably stay though."

"It's not like we're abandoning them, we'll be able to meet up easily," I said. Silence returned as the two of us sat down and thought through what we'd do to help Vale.

 **Author's notes**

 **Don't you just hate it when you're in school and then a criminal organization besieges it using a giant Wyvern and monsters of Grimm, and all you're doing is trying to get a decent education for yourself?**


	49. Four months later

Chapter 49

Four months later

* * *

Clara, Dusty's home

* * *

I woke with a start, I'd had another weird dream. They'd been happening every once in awhile since Beacon fell, they'd start off normally but then they'd twist and I wouldn't feel like myself. In the dreams I was always with my team, out hunting Grimm and then my perception would gradually change to feel like my zero aura self. They were just nightmares, but that didn't unnerve me any less. I took a deep breath as I looked around the room, it was pretty unadorned at the moment seeing as I'd only lived there a few months. This was Dusty's house, he said an old teammate had left it to him in their will. Dusty had taken me in and allowed me to live here, he was out most days so the house was mostly kept to myself. I yawned and got dressed, pulling on some warm clothes and heading to the door. I grabbed a shovel and an ax leaning next to the door and went outside, the cold air immediately made me shiver. It's been snowing steadily for a few days now, I've started getting into the routine of clearing my paths to the firewood and the main road. Thankfully I don't work entirely alone, I had an Ursa that could help clear path just by scooting across the ground.

"Why did Dusty's friend set the firewood shack so far from the house, it would've been smarter to have it next to the house." I muttered to myself as I trudged along behind the Ursa. I came up to the firewood shack, which was next to the main road and began splitting logs. Then I heard footsteps behind me, I turned to see Ruby and what remained of team JNPR walking up the road.

"Good morning Ruby, where are you guys headed?" I asked.

"Mi-" Nora started to say before Jaune cut her off.

"Vale, we're getting some supplies," Jaune said.

"Sure you are, which is why you are in your combat outfits with your weapons and packed backpacks," I said, Ruby sighed in response.

"Please don't go tell dad, at least not until we get off the island," Ruby begged.

"One condition, where are you guys headed and why?" I asked. "I know from experience it's smart to let someone know first."

"Mistral, we have a few reasons to go," Jaune said.

"Cinder, she said she was from Haven and it's the only lead we have," Ruby explained.

"While I still think your whole plot of four teenagers taking down whatever mastermind plot is going on is ridiculous, I don't see anyone else trying to do something about it," I said.

"You could come with us if you want to help," Ren said.

"I would, but I have things to handle here," I said. "But who knows what the future holds, you guys should probably get going." They each waved their goodbyes before heading down the road.

I continued splitting logs before deciding I had enough and took the split logs back to the house, all the while wondering if I'd done the right thing there. Then something else entered my thoughts suddenly, I had something to do today. Erik and I were going to meet up with everyone in Vale, why am I so forgetful sometimes. I grabbed my wallet from my bedside table and started running towards the Xia Long household, where Erik was living. I knocked on the door and was greeted by a smiling Taiyang, seems he didn't know yet.

"Good morning Clara, what brings you around?" He asked.

"Erik and I were headed to town to catch up with friends, where is he?" I asked.

"Upstairs, probably asleep." Taiyang joked.

"Thanks." I said, heading up the stairs. Erik was sitting on the edge of the guest bed, pulling on a pair of boots and gloves. He looked up at me as I walked in and grinned, pulling himself up and walking over to me.

"Come on let's head out," Erik said. "Knowing him, Argus has probably dragged team LIAC there early."

"Yeah, probably," I said, stepping out of the room. We left the house just as Tai was carrying up a tray of food, so we'd left just in time. We trudged along the road towards where the ferries were, both of us quiet. I could easily guess what was eating up his thoughts, as it wasn't far from what was taking up mine. It may have been four months, but the imagery of the fall of Beacon was stuck in my mind. The bodies littering the streets, the Grimm swarming around the streets, and the look of fear in that Faunus's eyes as I went for his throat. I don't think I'll ever get over that particular ordeal, partially because I can never sort out my thoughts on it. I always start with thinking it was awful, then the disgust of it fades away and it seems like a rational decision. It just fluctuates between the two as I think of it and it scares me, it makes me think of some of what Azoth said he went through in his journal.

* * *

Isaac, ?

* * *

"Where the hell is Heron, I would've thought that the chaos of the aftermath would've been a perfect time to strike." My dad joked. We were in the dark empty place we'd been when he first revealed himself, he'd recently figured out how to force me to dream here.

"More like the obvious time to strike, too obvious," I said. "I would have been more on edge then than I would have been later, but thanks to a voice constantly reminding me of the threat I won't let my guard down."

"But now there are police and order is somewhat restored," Dad stated. "That makes it harder."

"But now there aren't fully trained hunters running around everywhere, only piddly officers." I countered. "This is why mom always made the plans and you didn't."

"Fuck you." He said. "I can't wait to see-"

"Okay, I'm done waiting Isaac, wake up!" Elith's voice suddenly sounded. My eyes popped open with a start and I immediately pulled myself up and looked around, disoriented. I looked around the room, it was somewhat small and lightly furnished. There was just the small bed I was in and a closet, there were two doors leading to the outer hallway and the bathroom respectively. The bathroom had another door leading to Eliths room, we'd rented connected rooms in a place called 'The sheets.' It was a pretty simple, not to mention cheap, place that was a good enough for us to stay in as we worked to fix up Vale.

Elith was standing in the doorway connecting our rooms wearing pants and a long sleeve shirt with her arms crossed impatiently.

"I'm up, what's the matter," I asked.

"If I let you sleep any longer we'd be late," Elith said.

"Late for what?" I asked.

"Meeting up with everyone, how could you forget?" Elith answered.

"Cut me some slack, I was up late chasing off looters last night," I said defensively as I got up and gathered up some clothes to change into.

"Fair enough," Elith replied as she backed out of the room to give me some privacy. "So did he drag you back to that dark place again."

"It's been a whole month and he has yet to stop, I think that question is becoming redundant," I replied.

"It's still worth asking, how am I supposed to know what's going on in your head," Elith asked.

"Fair point," I replied. I pulled on some warm clothing and retrieved my knixes from my bedside table before opening the door again and walking into her room, then we both made our way out into the hall. We made our way out into the streets and trudged along through the snow, making our way to the meeting place.

* * *

Elith, Vale

* * *

The last four months had been pretty boring in all honesty, Isaac and I were just working to help with Vale's reconstruction and doing some security work. I'd received a letter from Sparrow not long after Beacon fell telling me how Dad wasn't going to let me come back, even in these circumstances. It didn't bother me at all though, I prefer living here with Isaac and helping out people who deserve better than what they've gotten.

"Do you think Vale will ever recover fully?" Isaac asked as we passed by a rubble-filled alleyway.

"The city probably will, I don't know if Beacon is recoverable though," I answered. "It might as well be mount Glen at this point."

"Sad, but probably true," Isaac said, we walked in silence for a little while. There is one issue that been bothering me that being around Isaac hasn't helped, the feelings I had for him. No matter how many times I remind myself that it's stupid to get involved like that my mind seems to forget about it. Perhaps I should just admit it to him, he can say no and I can stop wasting my time on this issue.

"Hey Isaac, I've been meaning to say something." I started.

"What is it?" He asked.

"Well-" I started.

"Isaac, Elith, hey!" A loud voice came along from behind us, I instantly recognized the booming quality to be the hallmarks of none other than Robin. I silently thanked Robin for saving me from my idiocy.

"Hey Robin!" I called back, I looked to see her and the rest of her team heading towards us.

"I'm glad we came across you guys, we weren't sure which restaurant we were meeting at," Sage admitted.

"It was Grosvenor bar and grill." Isaac supplied.

"I told you I was right Cadet!" Sage said.

"You usually aren't." Cadet countered. "You generally don't have the best memory."

"True, but it doesn't make me automatically wrong," Sage said.

I chuckled, it had been awhile since I'd seen them and I was glad to see they hadn't changed that much from the fall of Beacon. They hardly seem phased by it, then again they didn't suffer much from it past the standard. No dead or traumatized teammates for them, team CRMS is a lucky bunch it seems, past whatever happened to Misty. It didn't take long to reach the restaurant, where Carter, Ivory, and Argus were standing outside of.

"I told you we were early," Carter said to Argus.

"Better early than late, and I never said we weren't early," Argus said.

"We've been here for thirty minutes Argus." Ivory submitted.

"We would've been here for an hour, but you two dilly-dallied as you got ready to go," Argus said. "Your abilities to waste time are why I have us come early."

"I can and will slap you, Argus," Carter muttered.

"Hey guys looks like Clara and Erik are a bit late," Isaac said. "Let's just take seats and wait for them."

"Sounds good." Ivory said. The nine of us headed inside and took a seat at a large table.

"Don't start without us!" Clara's voice suddenly rang out from the doorway, she and Erik slipped into chairs at our table and we all immediately started chatting.

* * *

Erik, Grosvenor bar and grill

* * *

"So Sage, you're from a village right?" I asked. "Why haven't you and your sister gone back home yet."

"We aren't allowed to, not until we graduate from an academy," Sage said. "No exceptions, another stupid rule my tribe has."

"How many dumb rules does your village have?" I ask.

"More than you can count, I don't get them," Sage replies. "My sister follows them like a religious text though."

"She can't be as bad as Argus," Carter said.

"Obeying the law isn't a bad thing," Argus said.

"It is when you're really uptight about it," Clara said.

"At least Argus doesn't think you can figure out a baby's destiny by seeing what type of Grimm tries to kill it first," Sage said.

"Wait what?" Elith asked.

"That's part of our tribe's traditions, when you're born they leave you out in a clearing until a Grimm comes for you," Sage explained. "Depending on which kind comes you are raised to a particular job and fighting style."

"That's weird." Ivory commented.

"It seemed normal back then, but now that I've seen normal lives it seems ridiculous," Sage said. "A small nevermore came to me, so I was trained in scouting and taught archery."

"What was your sister again?" Cadet asked.

"An alpha Beowolf, she was trained for leadership and swordsmanship," Sage said. "Made it extra disappointing for her when 'that sleaze Persi' became the team leader."He mimicked his sisters intimidating voice for a moment, drawing a laugh from everyone.

"Enough about Sage, he drones about himself enough already." Robin joked. "What about team EICE, what have you guys been up to?"

"Dusty hasn't been home for awhile now, so I've been stuck doing almost all of the work around my house," Clara said. "I hope he's alright, I hate not being able to keep in touch easily."

"I'm sure he's fine, he's a skilled huntsman from what I saw on our mission," Argus commented.

"I've mostly been doing household chores and hunting Grimm on Patch," I said. "There isn't that many powerful Grimm there, but practice is practice."

"Isaac and I have been helping stop looters in Vale, that's the more interesting part of our job," Elith said. "I'm also almost done with my new weapons, they'll seem familiar when you see them."

"I don't get why people can just do stuff like that," Carter growled. "The city is already hurt, it's beneficial to no one to slow its recovery." Everyone nodded in agreement, it was nice to meet up with these guys again. My own team had kept in contact, but we'd only had sparing contact with everyone else.

"What about team LIAC, how have you guys been?" Elith asked.

"Well enough, we've been living in a flat that Ivory swears she did not steal the key to," Carter explained.

"I didn't, I'm friends with the guy who owns it and he lent it to us." Ivory claimed.

"Sure you are," Argus said.

"I have friends and a life outside of you two, you're aware of this right?" Ivory said defensively.

"Good point," Carter said.

"It doesn't alleviate my suspicions," Argus said. We continued to exchange small talk for a time, cracking jokes and catching up on small events in our lives. Like how sullen Yang has been recently and what kind of looting attempts we've dealt with.

"I wish Liath were here right now." Carter mused.

"So do I," Isaac said. "I want to thank him for what he did, even if it was foolish."

"Make that two of us," Robin said.

"Three," Elith said.

"At least he got to leave doing what he liked the most, beating the ever-loving shit out of every living thing in his general vicinity," Carter said.

"Not the worst way he could've gone," Sage commented.

"Agreed," I said. The small talk returned, but a bit of gloom remained over the conversation. We hung out for a few hours and got a bite to eat before we all had to depart and return home, promising to meet up next week at the same time.

 **Author's notes**

 **This chapter was mostly made to establish where they are four months later, sorry if it was somewhat boring. Interesting things happening next chapter, many interesting things….**


	50. Deja Vu

Chapter 50

Deja Vu

* * *

Elith, Vale marketplace

* * *

"Look, I know the craft was a bit more difficult than you expected but this price bump is ludicrous," I complained. "I gave you a good amount of time to examine the blueprints before we set a price, you can't charge more because you didn't pay enough attention."

"Look, kid, I could always sell this to someone less obstinate." The smith I was haggling with countered.

"You'll be hard-pressed to find a buyer right now," I said. "Combat school is out so you won't find kids looking for an easy option for their weapons, and very few hunters are in the market for new weapons."

"Fine, you're a good dealer kid." The smith said. "You'd make a damn good businesswoman if the huntress deal falls out." I laughed at that for more reasons he could possibly know as he slid my new weapons over the counter and I set down my Lien. I grabbed the larger of the two weapons, a type of weapon that I'd learned was called a 'Shotel'. The hilt was wrapped in black leather and the blade was made with blued steel, thin lines running through the curved portion hinted at its secondary function. It was well made, this smith's reputation was clearly well-earned. Then I grabbed the second weapon, a parrying dagger of my own design. Its blade was heavily notched and each notch was shaped like an arrow to catch any weapon that slipped into the notches, it was less nice-looking than the shotel but that didn't really detract from it at all.

"I'll admit you did a really good job, so I'll give you some of the extra you asked for," I said, putting a few more lien on the table before leaving the building.

"Thanks, mam, come again if you ever need them repaired!" The smith called.

I went outside, the sun was starting to rise now and I could see people leaving their homes and crowding the street. I'm glad I'd chosen to avoid the traffic and leave home early, but now I'm worried that Isaac won't wake up on time. Thoughts of Isaac were immediately stripped from my mind as I heard a scream come from the direction of the town square, I readied my new equipment and made haste for the square, I staggered into the square as I pushed through a gathering crowd.

"I'm a huntress, let me through!" I called. "What's going on!" I stumbled into the clear and clasped my hand over my mouth at the sight, it was quite gruesome. The first thing my eyes landed on was large letters painted with blood on the ground as well as a few smaller letters. The words that called for the most attention read 'Remember this?', and the smaller words read things like 'Blood for Blood' and 'I.B'. But the centrepiece was most horrific, it was a dead woman who had been brutalized by a small bladed weapon. It looked like she'd been stabbed multiple times and the blade had been torn out at some points, only one part of the body was left clean. The head was clear of injury, the woman had round features a well as brown hair and two grey wolf ears protruding from her head. Then I saw one last thing protruding from the chest of the faunus, glinting in the light of sunrise, a well-crafted dagger that was far too familiar. That dagger, no doubt about it, was definitely one of Isaac's knixes.

"Well, shit," I said to myself.

* * *

Isaac, Thesheets

* * *

woke with a start, which was normal at this point with what my dad was doing. I rubbed my head and looked around, something felt off about the room today and I wasn't sure what.

"Elith, you still here?" I called, there was no response so she must be out. I quickly pulled on some clothes and started searching around the room, it didn't take me long to spot what was wrong. The sheaths to my knixes, which I always leave hanging next to my bed, were short one blade. I know for sure that I sheathed both of them, and Elith would've left a note or woken me if she took one. Someone had slipped in and stolen one of my knixes, and I already had a very good guess as to whom. I sat down on my bed and waited for what I knew was coming to the door, after twenty minutes a series of knocks sounded on the door.

"Mr Blythe, open this door or we will be forced to break it open!" A man's voice sounded. "We've got a warrant for your arrest."

"What grounds?" I asked.

"You know what grounds you sick bastard, homicide as well as a hate crime!" The man called.

"What makes you think I did it," I asked, knowing the answer but wanting these questions to be on the record.

"You're DNA was all over the place, not to mention the only one present on the murder weapon." The man shouted. "And you signed your initials all over the place like it was a fucking art display."

"I'll come with you, but I'll have you know that I plead not guilty," I stated, I opened the door to see a few officers prepped for a fight. I held out my hands, got cuffed, and walked with them to the outside of the building.

"Should've guessed he'd come peaceably, it's not like he was trying to hide that it was him or anything." Another officer said as they pushed me into the back of one of the cars, the vehicle took off immediately and I was on my way to a jail cell.

* * *

Clara, Vale marketplace

* * *

I walked out of the produce store with a few bags of things I'd started running low on at the house and took a deep breath.

"Clara, hold up!" I heard Elith call suddenly, I turned to see she had a distressed look on her face.

"Woah, what's the matter Elith?" I said, I'd never seen her look distressed like this before and I was honestly scared.

"It's Isaac, he's been arrested for homicide!" Elith said. "There was a dead body, his initials were there, his knife was there, fingerprints were everywhere…" She continued to babble about the murder, I couldn't tell if she was more distressed by the murder or Isaacs involvement.

"Take a breath Elith, breath and just tell me what this is about?" I said, my head was reeling enough without her rambling.

"There was a murder in the square this morning and all evidence points to Isaac, and to add more to the evidence it seems to not be the first time," Elith said, keeping the words in a more coherent order this time.

"What do you mean, not the first time?" I asked.

"As in he was tried for homicide in Vacuo before he left for here under similar circumstances, a nigh on identical homicide," Elith explained. "Down to the type of faunus and the most minute of the wounds inflicted."

"We've been on a team with a serial killer?" I said, still trying to wrap my head around how Isaac is in jail.

"I don't think so, I feel as though the scene makes it so obviously him that it must be a framing job," Elith said. "Come on, let's go get his side of the story, I was on my way anyhow." Elith swiftly dragged me off towards the Vale police department.

* * *

Erik, Xiao Long household

* * *

I stretched as I looked out at Vale across the water, I wonder what Isaac and Elith are up to? Probably nothing interesting, at best they might be chasing some punk looter with a pistol or a stray Beowolf. Not like I can say my guard duty is particularly interesting, there aren't as many Ursa or Beowolves strolling around in the snowy days.

"Hey, Erik." I heard Yang say as she walked up behind me. "Is Clara here?"

"No, she went for groceries," I said, Yang nodded and began to walk off. "Hold up Yang."

"What." She asked.

"I haven't known you for too long Yang but I'd say you're my friend," I said. "And I get why you've been so dejected as of late between your arm and Blake leaving, but I think it'd be good to talk about it."

"You aren't that great at opening up this kind of conversation," Yang said.

"Well sorry, but I don't exactly have the best people skills." I countered. "It just that your current attitude concerns me, I think that acting like this is hardly the best thing for you or anyone around you."

"And you know what's best?" Yang asked.

"Hardly, I'm just perceptive and can see the toll this is taking on you," I answered. "I don't know what's best, but I do see that how you are right now is having a negative effect on your dad, me, and Clara."

"What do you mean?" Yang replied.

"That the three of us are empathetic and seeing you hurt makes us hurt," I said. "We know we aren't suffering as much as you, but we know how much you're suffering if that makes sense."

"Sort of," Yang replied, then she started walking back inside. "Tell me when Clara gets back." I sighed, hoping she's gotten the gist of what I'd said.

* * *

Isaac, VPD

* * *

"Put him in the cell next to that nut job, it's the only empty one." One of the officers said as I passed. I was moved into a cell near the end of the hall and pushed back into it, they undid my cuffs and locked the door.

"Wait, when's my trial?" I asked the officer who'd guided me here before he left.

"A week, it could be sooner but some lady insisted she needed time to find evidence of your innocence." The officer replied. "What a fat joke that is, like there's any way it wasn't you." They left my view and I was left to the silence of my cell, I sat down on my bed and leaned against the wall. I almost immediately heard a knocking noise on the other side, I knocked back out of curiosity.

"Hey, just wanted to let you know that the walls are thin here." A gruff voice from behind the wall said. "I found that out day one."

"Well, at least I have someone to talk to," I said.

"What are you in for?" The voice asked.

"Framed for murder by my own family," I answered simply.

"Ouch, I'm in for Public Nude Assault." The voice replied.

"Is that an actual name for crime?" I asked.

"Well technically I'm charged with public indecency _and_ assault, but I just put them together to speed up the process." The voice said. "I was taking a piss when I saw a few jackasses picking on a Faunus, I went over and beat the shit out of the assholes only to realise I hadn't exactly finished covering myself." I laughed to myself at that, what an odd way to get arrested.

"That's honestly hilarious, at least you were doing something good when you got arrested," I said. "I was just sitting at home, knowing that I'd been framed and I was on my way to jail once the cops got here."

"If it's worth anything, I believe you didn't do it." The voice said.

"Thanks," I replied, laying down and shutting my eyes.

 **Author's notes**

 **watch?v=dv13gl0a-FA**

 **Now that that cancer is out of the way, here's another chapter. I enjoyed writing this one, I think you lot will like this story arc.**


	51. Interrogation

Chapter 51

Interrogation

* * *

Isaac, VPD

* * *

"So how long have you been locked up?" I asked the guy in the other cell.

"A month, I got some slack because all I did was beat up some assholes so I only have three months to go." He replied. "Honestly, they're probably more angry about the nude thing."

"I feel like my sentence will be shorter than that," I said.

"Why?" He asked.

"I doubt I'll be proved innocent, but I know that my family is going to come and kill me," I answered.

"Why would they, I thought they were trying to frame you." He said.

"The framing was to bring up a bad memory, some salt on the wound before they finish the job," I explained.

"Well you have to admit they're dedicated, didn't you say it was a perfect replica of the first crime?" He asked

"Yeah, it's a sick and twisted kind of dedication though." I sighed.

"Alright butcher, someone's here to talk to you." An officer said as he walked into sight, I think his name was Leif judging by conversations I'd overheard. Leif opened my cell and cuffed my hands, then he started guiding me away towards another room. He opened the door and led me into a standard looking interrogation room, metal table, one-way mirror and whatnot. Standing in the room was both Elith and Clara, both looking supremely concerned.

"Well, I'm sure 'a few' would not begin to describe how many questions you have?" I asked.

"Hardly," Elith said. "But before you throw around explanations, fill in Clara with what you've told me already." Leif left the room, probably to stand guard.

"Well, every time I try to bury the past it comes and takes a good-sized chunk out of my ass so why not," I said with a sigh, no point in hiding this shit from everyone now. I quickly give the hole-riddled version of my past life that I've already told Elith.

"Jeez, that's one hell of a story," Clara said, clearly bereft of a proper response.

"That's not all of it though," Elith said. "Isaac neglected to mention this deal the whole time." Elith set down a folder, she opened it to reveal a field report, a mug shot of me, and multiple pictures of a crime scene that was all too familiar to me.

"Thank you for showing me those pictures to me, they were started to get a bit indistinct in my nightmares," I said, looking away from the pictures.

"You didn't mention that your weapons were found at the scene and no DNA other than your own was there and that you broke out of prison," Elith said.

"I didn't break out of prison, I was broken out of prison against my will." I corrected her. "And I didn't tell you about the former because I knew this would happen."

"That you'd be framed for murder again?" Clara asked.

"No, that Elith would be interrogating me for 'the truth' about the case file I knew she'd find if I told her," I explained. "The truth is that I was framed as part my mother's sick idea of teaching me a lesson."

"I want to believe you, Isaac, I just can't find any proof to back it," Elith said. "If you were framed, they did a completely perfect job." I felt offended, hurt that she would think I was capable of something like this after how much she knew about me.

"Elith, you're being unfair!" Clara said.

"I don't want to be, I don't want to think he did it any more than you do," Elith said. "That's why I'm going try my hardest to find any proof I can to prove that Isaac is innocent, but I need one thing before I dedicate." Elith quickly placed her hand on my neck and looked me directly in the eyes with her unnerving yellow eyes. I knew what she was doing, her fingers were right over my carotid artery.

"I swear that I've been framed, I am innocent," I said calmly. Elith let out a sigh and backed up, a look of relief washing over her face.

"You're either a great liar or innocent, and I already know that the former is a lie," Elith said with a grin. "What do you're family members look like?"

"My twin brothers are tall and stocky, short curly brown hair and blue eyes," I said. "My sister is the youngest, she's probably still rather short with braided blonde hair and green eyes."

"What about your mother?" Elith asked.

"Tallest of them all, long straight brown hair and blue eyes," I stated. "If you're going to try what I think you are, don't count on spotting my sister on any cameras."

"Why?" Clara asked.

"She has a pretty negative effect on electronics," I explained.

"I'll still try," Elith said.

* * *

Erik, Patch

* * *

"The atlesian dust embargo currently in the works has many-" I cut off the news reporter there, I was tired of bad news and that was all that was being broadcast anymore. Suddenly I heard a beep from my vigilantiam and I looked up at the door, waiting for someone to burst in. In a few seconds Clara burst through, her lack of characteristic shivering told me she'd run the whole way here.

"What's the matter, Clara?" I asked.

"It's Isaac, he's been framed for a murder," Clara explained.

"Wait, what?" I asked, dumbfounded. Clara hastily explained what she could to me, given me a rundown of Isaac's past and what was going on now.

"What the actual hell, I thought this whole deal was over with!?" I exclaimed, I thought it had ended when Isaac killed his dad.

"Not to his family, we need to prove his innocence if he has a chance to get out of this alive," Clara said.

"How can I help?" I asked.

"Elith wanted you to meet her at the sheets," Clara said. "Not sure what she has planned."

"Alright, I'll be off then," I answered.

"I'll be here for a bit, I want to talk to Yang for a bit," Clara said.

"Alright, she was looking for you earlier," I said as I made my way to the door. I quickly went outside and hurried along the road, stumbling over some built up snow as I hurried along. This all happened really suddenly, it was a lot to take in at once. Why hadn't Isaac talked more about this stuff, we could've helped him out and quite possibly prevented this whole situation. I suppose I'm being hypocritical, early on I hadn't been the most open person about my past either. Not to mention that me being quiet about it got me and Isaac into a situation as well, one that he saved me from. I owed it to him to help prove his innocence, no matter what it took.

* * *

Elith, The sheets

* * *

scrolled through the security footage looking for black space or jumps in the footage, frame by frame in the hopes of spotting any inconsistencies on the night that they would've taken Isaac's Knix. I'd narrowed the film down from when Isaac fell asleep to when the murder was estimated to have occurred.

"Hey, Elith?" Erik's voice called as he opened the door to the security room.

"Erik, you're here, great!" I said happily. "I need your help with this." I gestured to the console.

"What can I do?" He asked.

"I need your semblance, flipping through each individual frame is way too slow and might not even bear fruit so I need you to watch while I scroll at normal speeds," I explained. "It'll go much faster like that."

"Alright, it'll be tedious for me but I agree that it's the fastest option," I said. "I hope we find something." I started up the video and watched Erik set to work, I'd never paid him much mind when he used his semblance so I decided to get a closer look now. His eyes were shifting at unnatural speeds, glancing from spot to spot on the screen with great precision. It was actually sort of unnerving to see, almost more so than seeing clones of yourself. We panned through the tapes two times, the second time through Erik raised his hand.

"Pause it." He said. "Go back a few seconds." I did as he said, then he bumped it forward a few frames.

"What's up?" I ask.

"There's a window to the outside in the hallway, keep an eye on that," Erik said as he resumed the video. I watched the window as he said and saw something slip by it for a split second.

"What was that," I asked.

"A foot, our infiltrator was outside," Erik explained. "We've been looking at the wrong cameras."

"Then let's go find the right one," I said.

Clara, Xiao Long household

I knocked on Yang's door before walking in.

"Hey Yang, you were looking for me earlier?" I asked. She was sitting on her bed looking out the window.

"Yeah, I just wanted to talk," Yang said. I took a seat next to her and looked out the window, I could see my Ursa doing his rounds on the main road to move the snow. "Why were you running up the road in such a panic?"

"It's a long story, Isaac's in trouble," I explained.

"How so?" Yang said, her interest slightly piqued.

"He's having his past catch up to him, and it's not a good past apparently," I said vaguely. Yang clenched her fist slightly, clearly, I'd said something.

"Sounds familiar, did he bolt?" Yang asked.

"No, but it's landed him in jail and we're helping him out," I said.

"At least he's letting you help him," Yang said, I started realising that this was about Blake.

"Yang," I started, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to say next about something like this.

"What?" She asked, a bit more rudely than I think she intended.

"You're still angry about Blake, is that what this is about?" I said, gesturing to her clenched fists.

"Why wouldn't I still be angry, she abandoned us

"Look, I'm sorry that Blake ran like she did, but it's not worth getting as bitter as you're getting," I said. "I get loss and abandonment, I've suffered it worse than you have, and I know that you aren't as bad off as you might think." The moment the phrase left my lips I realised that it was hardly conciliatory, that thought was reinforced by glimpsing her eyes which were now crimson.

"Get out, I don't want to talk," Yang growled. "If all you have to say is that I'm not as bad off as you are, get out." I was immediately scared, those eyes were bad news and I doubted my useless social skills could remedy this situation. I walked out of the room as she glowered at me, I closed the door behind me as I slinked into the hall. I slid down to a sitting position and sighed, she would calm down eventually, right? I had no idea just how much my words had bothered her, I could never gauge things like that, I just know it was a lot.

* * *

Isaac, VPD

* * *

" _I can't get over it, Heron really is something."_ My dad chuckled. " _No mistakes marrying that woman, this is just perfect."_ He continued laughing as that crimson form drifted about my cell.

"If you're quite done gloating about this, you said you wanted to say something to me?" I said.

" _Yeah, I was getting to it you impatient little shit,"_ Dad muttered. " _Look, your death will come suddenly and without warning so I don't know when I'll have the chance to say this."_

"That you secretly actually do care?" I joked.

" _Ha ha."_ He replied sarcastically. " _No, I just wanted to ask you something."_

"Shoot, you might as well." I sigh.

" _Was it worth it Isaac, running away from us over the death of a single faunus."_ He asked. " _Sacrificing a comfortable life set up for you just so you could die later."_

"Yes, it was, because I don't want to live a comfortable life built on innocent blood," I replied. "And I'm honestly not perturbed by the thought of dying, my experiences here are far greater than what I would've gotten if I stayed and lived longer."

" _You're a fool Isaac, your morals have never gotten you anywhere."_ He replied. " _I can't wait to see Heron slitting your throat."_

 **Author's notes**

 **Sorry for how long this took to write, I've been preoccupied with a big road trip and writer's block.**


	52. Blood for Blood

Chapter 52

Blood for Blood

* * *

Elith, the sheets

* * *

"Useless, this is all completely useless." I groaned, staring at the video clips me and Isaac had isolated over the course of four days.

"At least we know what route she took," Erik said, desperately trying to draw out a good side. We'd searched every camera between the sheets and the murder scene and had managed to find a series of cameras that had tampered footage, identical to how Isaac described they would look. Not sudden blackouts, just a seamless transition from one time to the next.

"Yes, but to the court, it'll look like the path Isaac took rather than the one his sister took," I said. "So we still have nothing."

"Wrong, we have a route to look for clues on." Erik countered. "Don't give up when Isaac needs us."

"I know, it's just becoming frustrating." I sighed, sitting down and taking a deep breath. Erik walked up and placed a hand on my shoulder, I looked up and saw a look of determination etched into his eyes.

"It's going to be alright, between you and me there's no way we'll find nothing out here." He assured me.

"I sure hope so, let's get straight to it," I stated. The two of us made our way out of the building and walked into the streets, we made our way to the side of the building our room was on and began our search. The two of us spent hours searching all over our mapped route sweeping back and forth to check every detail, but we found nothing of great import past proof that someone had passed through here in a hurry four days ago.

"I'm starting to think this is hopeless, the night is falling and we still have nothing." I groan. "His family is too good at this."

"Let's get something to eat, then let's head straight back to work," Erik said. "There has to be something we missed." I smiled weakly at his optimism and started walking.

"There's a place nearby, let's be quick about it," I said.

* * *

Isaac, VPD

* * *

"So, that friend of yours, she really seems to care about you." My neighbour said. "Still trying with how hopeless you said it was and how little progress she's been making."

"She's a dedicated friend, I couldn't ask for a better one," I said, my neighbour, replied with a bit of a chuckle.

"This isn't the kind of dedication you see in a friend, it's what you see in someone who either owes you their life or pines for your affection." He said. "I think it's door number two." I pause for a solid five seconds before responding.

"Come again?" I replied, confused.

"Man, she likes you!" He said loudly. "This can't be the first time she's tried to get your attention."

"She's nice a lot of the time, but I don't think-" I started as he cut me off.

"She gave up the chance to sleep in a nice house to live in a shitty apartment complex with you… alone." He said. "Seriously, you remind me of this other guy I know, his teammate was totally into him and the guy had no clue what was going on. It was both hilarious and fucking infuriating to witness."

"Well, I doubt it's what's going on here," I said, I doubted that Elith of all people would even be interested in getting into a relationship. I mean, early on in our year at beacon she made it very clear she didn't want to be in a relationship or be sought out, she said it was pointless to seek this early on.

"Sure you do, that's just what the other guy would've said." He replied with a laugh.

"There's no way you could tell all this just by hearing about it second-hand from me, the allegedly oblivious one," I said.

"It's not that hard to see, which what makes this so-" He stopped as the lights in the building suddenly shut off.

"Well, it's been nice talking with you the past few days, but I'd wager my family won't be long off now," I said.

"Don't worry, I have your back." He said.

"How exactly do you plan on helping me when your stuck in that cell?" I asked.

"I have my ways." He replied.

"I sure hope you do, otherwise I'll die disappointed." I half-joked, best to have some semblance of a grin before facing death.

* * *

Erik, Vale

* * *

Elith and I walked into the streets, we'd found a small restaurant near the VPD since we'd planned on stopping by to talk with Isaac after we ate. As soon as we walked out I heard an explosion and saw the lights on the other side of the road shut down immediately. I looked to see the smoke rising from a nearby substation, and four figures walking away from it.

"That has to be them," Elith said. "They must be coming for Isaac now!" She immediately bolted for the people at the substation as they made their way to the VPD.

"Stop right there!" I shouted as we got closer to them, two of them turned their heads and they seemed to exchange a few words. Then three of them continued on, leaving the fourth standing between us and them. They looked like one of Isaac's brothers, tall, broad, and has curly brown hair. He stood his ground as we approached and held up his hand for us to stop.

"You don't want to head further if you value your lives." He growled in a deep voice.

"Correction, you don't want to stop us if you value yours," Elith growled back, her reaction was more intimidating than anyone expected.

"I'd like to see you two pipsqueaks take a shot, I'm a titan compared to you." He said as his aura started visibly flickering.

"I count two of us, and you aren't that much bigger than-" I trailed off as before my eyes I saw his form rapidly expand to roughly the size of an atlesian paladin.

"I swear if you ask if you've shrunk, I get that joke far too much." He asked, his voice much deeper and booming now.

"Good job asshole, you're a bigger target now!" Elith shouted.

"Who said you'll be able to take a shot." He replied with a grin, he swung out his arm, slamming it into where Elith stood moments before. I quickly drew Homicida and slashed out at the arm as it raised up again, but before it could slam down again I traced a straight line on Invicta and braced my great shield against a nearby wall. The arm fell again and remained on Invicta, trying to crush it. I slipped my hand off Invicta and quickly crawled out from under the assault, he didn't note my escape as most of his focus was on an extremely pissed Elith hurling fireballs and boulders at him. I leapt up onto his arm and began running up it, lashing him with Homicida the whole way up. He turned to look at me, just as a spike of rock slammed into his face.

"You aren't the brightest person are you!" I shouted as I swung Homicida at his face. "Don't try to intimidate a hunter by being larger than us, you stood a better chance when you were smaller." He grimaced at this as he quite suddenly shrank down to normal size, leaving me to fall.

"It was worth a shot." He growled. "I've done my job anyhow, they're probably done by now." With that quip he ran away, narrowly dodging a mote of flame from Elith.

"Get back here!" Elith shouted as the two of us made haste to the VPD.

* * *

Clara, Dusty's house

* * *

I threw some more logs on the fire as I waited for more of the house to warm up, I must've left a window open or something when I went to town earlier. I looked down to see that I needed to go grab some more firewood so I walked outside and started to make haste to the firewood stack, as soon as I left I saw that my Ursa wasn't there. I looked around for where they'd gone before I heard my answer, the growl of a Beowolf. Shit, I left my weapons inside, didn't I. I looked to see the monster making its way towards me from the smokey remains of my Ursa, the beast continued until it was about ten feet from me before stopping and sniffing the air. I felt a chill run down my spine, not because of the Beowolf, but because I felt no fear as I looked at the beast standing there and that reminded me of how I felt at zero aura. I stood stock still as the creature sniffed the air and stared me down, it seemed like it was trying to gauge if I was friend or foe. After a solid minute of this examination the Beowolf lost interest in me and began moving away, only now did I dare move. It didn't care about my movement and it continued to move about my yard, eventually stopping in the centre. It suddenly threw back it's head and released one of the strange howls that most Grimm share, other than a choice few. Listening to it now, I found the sound to be more calming that threatening and unnerving than I used to, I almost felt tempted to imitate it. I suddenly shook my head, that was a weird thought, why was that my first instinct to hearing one of the more dangerous sounds in the world? The Beowolf kept howling though, and the more it did the more I felt the urge to howl as well. I started backing up to the house, this interaction was clearly not good for my mental health. I slipped inside and shut the door, I grabbed one of my swords and went back outside. The Beowolf howled one final time before giving up and starting to walk away, and that tipped my unusual urge over the edge. I released a howl myself, not like the Grimm howls, identical to the Grimm howls. Not wanting to spend more time on this, I quickly cleaved the head from the Beowolf.

"What the hell did you make me do?" I muttered to the corpse, part of me really didn't want to think about what had just happened.

* * *

Isaac, VPD

* * *

I heard explosions and heavy footfalls outside, sounds like they'd found trouble on the way in if Braun had to use his semblance. I sat down on my cot and began twiddling my thumbs, waiting for death was a strange feeling, half of you wants the suspense to end while the other half wants to be alive for a bit longer.

" _I hope they make it slow if I'm gone the moment you die, I'd prefer to see you suffer a bit longer before I bid you adieu,"_ Dad said with a grin.

"You know Mom, speed and efficiency are what we'll be dealing with," I said.

" _I know, but I'd think that seeing as this is for revenge she might change policies,"_ Dad said hopefully.

"I doubt it, this may be revenge but it's as risky as any other crime," I said as I heard gunshots sounding throughout the police station.

"Dude, I know you think you're about to die, but don't start having one-sided conversations with yourself." My neighbour said suddenly, Dad immediately vanished.

"I'm not, but it would take a while to explain," I said, I started to see light coming into our corridor. "And time is not something we have on our hands." I saw three figures walk up to my cell. There was my mother, my sister Draht, and my brother Rippe.

"Hello Isaac, how has your little escapade been?" Mom inquired, a cruel grin spread across her face.

"Quite dandy until I had to see your ugly mugs again," I answered.

"I'm hurt, Isaac," Draht said with a pout.

"I'll admit, you're not ugly, just an unlikeable person." I conceded.

"We didn't come here to exchange petty banter, Isaac." Mom said. "You know why we're here?"

"We're here to kill you for killing dad," Rippe said.

"Jee, you're usually the slow one Rippe, but you didn't even give me a chance to answer." I joked, he clenched his fists at that.

"Children, children, let's hurry this up." Mom said, snapping her fingers to get their attention. She withdrew a key and used it to open my cell, I walked to the back and watched them walk in. I looked at my neighbour's wall, so much for his 'help'.

"Any last words Isaac?" Draht asked as Mom withdrew a red-stained knife.

"First off, glad to see I'm still worth the family dagger," I said. "Secondly, glad you guys found that thing in the forest, I'd lost it and hoped to pawn it off."

"You still are our flesh and blood Isaac, you deserve this little piece of respect." Mom said as she raised it to slash at me. Suddenly I heard a cracking sound to my right, I looked and saw cracks growing on my neighbour's wall as it began bulging outwards.

"What the fu-" Rippe began as the wall sudden exploded outward, hitting him with a good sized chunk of rubble.

 **Author's notes**

 **If you were wondering, yes, the family dagger is used to either end the life of or stab the corpse of each Blythe family member. It's ritualistic and they never clean it, so the blood of every Blythe since thirteen generations ago is caked onto that blade. Fun facts about the Blythe family.**


	53. Manhunt

Chapter 53

Manhunt

* * *

Clara, Xiao Long household

* * *

"What's the matter, Clara?" Taiyang asked.

"I was out of milk and I didn't want to go all the way to town," I answered as I grabbed a cereal bowl, he laughed a bit at that.

"That's not what I meant, you seem troubled," Tai said.

"I guess I have more than a few things on my mind," I replied. "Ranging from common to exceptionally unique."

"I can relate, tell me about it," Tai said, taking a seat.

"I guess I'll start with common, I pissed Yang off and I don't know how to rectify it," I said.

"Give her time and she'll be over it, no matter how heated she gets she cools off eventually," Tai said reassuringly.

"I know, but being ignored like this is still not great," I said.

"This is nothing, she once gave me the silent treatment for four months when she was younger," Tai said. "Last time we ever cut her hair." I chuckled a bit at that, I can only imagine what would happen if someone cut her hair nowadays.

"I suppose you're right, it won't be for long." I conceded. "In the meantime, I have much bigger issues."

"Shoot," Tai replied.

"My friend Isaac, you know him, he's hidden his past from us and now it's coming back for him," I said. "It's gotten him into trouble and we might lose him to it." I didn't want to tell Tai everything, but I could at least give an idea of what was going on.

"That situation sounds pretty familiar," Tai replied, a cross of anger and sadness flickering across his face.

"Sorry to hear it," I replied. "I have this other problem, but there's only one person who can help me with it and they died."

"What is it," Tai asked.

"Confusing," I replied. "I'd rather not talk about it without having some comprehension myself.

Tai didn't push for information and I quickly finished eating my cereal and returned to my house, I'm almost glad Tai talked with me about my issues. He reminded me of a potential solution to my issue regarding my howl earlier, Azoth's journal. I walked inside and hurried over to my bookshelf and retrieved the book, taking it to the fireplace and quickly began searching for answers. After an hour of pouring through the many entries on his research and cult, I eventually found an entry that mentioned something.

Entry 140

Thinking about it now, some of these changes from my twelve days aura-less were there before, just muted. It took this great magnification of them for me to realise they were already there, such as my violent urges and my neutral feelings. The problem is that reading back in earlier entries I was clearly having them, but they were like a stray thought or almost a separate person thinking of something. It unnerved me then, but I think I understand it now. As I became more Grimm-like the monstrous mental features began conflicting with my original features, so they began acting separately. Like my aura-less state was just beneath the surface, slipping into my thoughts from time to time.

Well, that did not put my mind at ease, what was that supposed to mean? Do I just have these Grimm thoughts running through my head now, or does that make me dangerous? I perused further, but he never mentioned the strange thoughts again. I was able to find notes that he began to be able to howl like Grimm, calling nearby Grimm to his position. This was mentioned more in passing, hardly any note was given to the matter. I groaned, of course, Azoth would've skipped over such a point in the journal, this entry was after he went off the deep end and stopped caring. I flipped to the last page and sighed, front to back with nothing worthwhile in it. Then I noticed something on the leather of the journal, a slit that a small corner of paper protruded from. I grabbed it and pulled it out, what could this be?

* * *

Elith, VPD

* * *

Erik and I hurry into the building, hearing shouting and loud crashes up ahead. It sounded like they were trying to level the building or something, I thought Isaac said his Mom would be subtle and efficient about this? I hurried through the building until we reached Isaac's cell, no one was there. Two walls were demolished, the wall of the neighbouring cell and the wall leading outside. There was a bloodstain on the floor as though a significant injury had been dealt there, the Blythes were nowhere to be found.

"This isn't enough for the sufferer to be dead yet, let's hurry Erik!" I said, rushing out into the street. I almost immediately spotted the four Blythes that we'd seen earlier, they were far down the road already and seemed to be chasing someone rather than fleeing.

"We can't chase them now, not without a vehicle," Erik said. "But it doesn't look like they're fleeing, I think Isaac got out of that scrap."

"I think so too, and I think I have a guess as to where he'll head," I said. "I know a way we can cut them all off." I immediately started off into a nearby alleyway.

"Where do you think he'd head?" Erik asked, following me.

"Initially I think he'll head to a place away from civilians to lose his parents, probably a place that would present a distraction and some potential danger to his family," Elith said. "Namely, a nearby area of the city that we still haven't wholly cleared of Grimm, it's in ruin still and a few older Grimm have made their homes there."

"If anywhere's a good spot to lose pursuers, that sounds like it," Erik said, and the two of started on a direct route to our destination.

* * *

Isaac, VPD

* * *

A hush fell over the room as we all looked to see the man standing in the freshly broken section of wall, even Rippe wasn't noting the gash in his chest from the boulder. Standing in the rubble was a man with messy black hair, wearing an odd-looking shirt and a slightly torn brown kilt. He also had rippling muscles that I could've sworn were glowing faintly, it was-

"Liath?" I asked.

"Isaac?" He asked.

"How the-" I started.

"No time, shocks wearing off," Liath said, rushing past me and shoulder charging the wall leading outside. He easily crashed straight through the wall staggering out into the street as though there were nothing there. Concerned more with how to escape this situation with my life than figuring out how Liath cheated death, I wasted no time following him out.

"Follow me Liath!" I said. I knew just where to lead my family. I ran and he followed along, I could see that my family was coming out with Braun in tow as well now. Liath and I were doing well keeping ahead of them, so we led them on until we reached the makeshift wall that marked the boundary of where we were headed. I quickly clambered up the wall and fell over the other side, I looked up to see Liath easily land on the wall in what I could only guess was one leap. The two of us quickly ran through the streets and I swiftly slipped into a ruined storefront, where I had hidden once from a Goliath. Hopefully this spot would serve me twice, even if they looked in they wouldn't spot us if we took refuge behind the front desk. I leaned against the counter and looked over at Liath, who looked relaxed as he leaned against it as well.

"You owe me an explanation when things get calmer," I said,

"I don't think that's how someone saving your life works," Liath replied.

"I think this is an exception," I said, then I heard footfalls outside. "Be quiet." I guess they must've split up seeing as it was two sets of feet walking around, good to know. I winced as I heard the two of them enter the building, they looked around for a moment before turning and leaving. I counted for five minutes to pass before letting out a sigh of relief and pulling myself up, then I helped Liath up.

"Come on, now's the time to bolt," I said, the two of us slipped out of the entrance and started running for another one of the barriers built around this section. Next stop was the sheets, I needed my non-confiscated dagger before I could feel comfy.

* * *

Erik, the sheets

* * *

"They left the Grimm nest looking quite pissed, Isaac must've eluded them," I said. "I'm telling you he would've gone here first."

"That's idiotic, he'd know this is the first place they'd come looking," Elith said.

"This is where his other Knix is, knowing Isaac he'd want to be armed as soon as possible," I explained. "I don't blame him." The two of us rushed inside and ran upstairs, going to the joined room and opening the door. Standing inside was Isaac and, Liath?

"I can explain, later," Isaac said, opening the window behind him. "For now, the four of us need to get out of here."

"Why?" I asked.

"The fuck do you think Erik, my homicidal family!" Isaac shouted. "Don't waste time." With that, Isaac slipped out the window and dropped down. Liath followed as well, and with a bit of hesitation Elith and I jumped out as well. As we landed in the alleyway we quickly started hurrying away before we stopped for a moment at a crossroad, all of us taking a breather.

"Where should we go now?" I asked no one in particular.

"To Patch, to get Clara," Elith said. "We'll have our full team and all the ammo we need to settle this."

"I can get behind that," Liath said.

"It will also give us time to learn how and why Liath isn't dead," Elith added, with that we made haste to the ferry.

 **Author's notes**

 **Why hello Liath, fancy meeting you here.**


	54. EICE in the streets, fire in the sheets

Chapter 54

EICE in the streets, fire in the sheets

* * *

Erik, the ferry

* * *

hate ships so much, Liath was about to explain how he survived the fall of Beacon and all I could think of was how much I wanted to throw up.

"So last we would've seen of you was you being swarmed by a horde of creeps, how did you survive that first of all," Elith asked.

"Luck mostly," Liath admitted. "You know the abandoned tunnels that lead to Mount Glen, we were over one and the weight was enough to collapse it and dump us down there."

"So you got trapped in the tunnels?" Isaac asked. "What happened after that?"

"I made my way through the tunnels before finding an entrance to a cave system that I decided to explore," Liath explained. "I got lost and wandered those cave for twenty-three days before-"

"That's impossible, you would've died of thirst and starvation," Elith said.

"Do I look dead to you?" Liath asked.

"You must've miscounted the days," Elith says.

"Stop interrupting," Liath said. "Eventually I fell into a pit trap where I was set upon by a tribe of Pygmies."

"Come again?" I asked.

"This tribe of people who had existed mostly underground for gods know how long came to check the trap, which they had set for food," Liath explained. "They didn't take kindly to me wasting their trap so they cut me loose and tried to fight me, they had this big burly guy who challenged me one on one."

"Where would they have gotten the nutrition to even have a particularly muscular guy if they lived underground?" Elith asked.

"Probably cannibalism," Liath said. "Anyways, I easily knocked the guy out and they all backed off and started bowing, apparently he was their chief and I took over by beating him in hand to hand combat."

"Awesome," Isaac said simply.

"They began calling me 'Josei no yōna sukāto o kiru', which took forever to figure out how to pronounce correctly by the way, and began taking orders from me," Liath said. "The problem was that I had to act out everything I wanted since we spoke different languages, eventually I managed to convey getting to the surface."

"Care to demonstrate how you conveyed that?" I asked.

"It's less embarrassing when you're a king and everything you do is amazing to the people watching," Liath said. "Once we got to the surface I introduced them to the concept of planting berries and other crops to them, as well as houses."

"So you founded a civilization of Pygmies?" Isaac said. "How come nothing as interesting as that happens to me."

"Isaac, you're currently being hunted down by your homicidal family in an epic story of crime and revenge," Elith said. "Define having something interesting happen."

"Fair enough." Isaac conceded.

"So, after spending a few months teaching them how to establish the community and have some semblance of government beyond chiefdom I decided to find Vale again," Liath said. "I made it back to the kingdom in two weeks, took a stop in a bathroom because I hadn't used a proper one in ages, and got arrested for public nude assault."

"You just spent four months in jail and pulled all of that out of your ass didn't you," I said.

"No, it's all true I swear." Liath protested.

"I believe him, you can't make this kind of stuff up," Isaac said, I honestly couldn't tell if he was joking.

"Isaac, there are literally hundreds of fictional stories that have that same basic plotline," Elith said, placing a hand on her face.

"I think it's more in the thou-" I was interrupted by myself as the ship swayed just a bit too much and I had to puke over the side.

"You really are awful with ships, don't you Erik?" Isaac said, laughing. How was he able to be so calm and in such a good mood when we're in a situation like this? We may be in a calm spot, but he still has the authorities and four people who kill for a living after him. I grinned and sat down, maybe I should take a leaf from his book.

* * *

Clara, Dusty's house

* * *

I set down the letter and took a deep breath, I didn't have a proper response to what I just read. Nothing could've prepared me for the contents of that letter, anything that could've prepared me would just have the same effect as reading the letter. Well, with this information on hand I guess I'll just- my train of thought was interrupted by Elith, Erik,,, Isaac, and Liath?

"I have a multitude of questions," I said. I'd already spent my reserves of surprise and shock for the day, so I hardly felt phased by Isaac not being in jail and Liath not being dead.

"I'm sure you do Clara, and you're not alone," Isaac said.

"Just, hurry up and explain yourselves," I said, they quickly explained the current circumstances and the basic plan we had.

"So we're going to face off with them, four hired killers who have more experience fighting humans than we do?" I asked.

"We won't have to beat them, all we need to do is get them to explain what they did," Elith said. "I can think of a few things that could draw them talk about it, and if we get a recording we can flee and use it as evidence to let Isaac walk free"

"Clever, just like you to think of that Elith," Isaac said, Liath audibly groaned in pain. "You okay buddy?"

"Yeah, I'm just remembering the two people I was talking about earlier today." He groaned.

"I won't ask, so with Isaac proved innocent and a threat placed on his life we'll get legal protection and help," Elith said. "I'd like to see Isaac's family stand against the Vale police force and us."

"Have you heard of bribes Elith?" Isaac asked.

"Yes, which is why we aren't trusting the police, only utilizing them," She explained.

"Are you in or not Clara?" Erik asked.

"The shit I do for friends," I sigh as I grab my weapons. "Next time, don't pretend like you have to ask me to help any of you, no matter the problem." Isaac grinned at that and gave me a hug.

"Thanks, Clara, thanks to all of you guys," Isaac said. "There aren't better friends to be had in this world."

"Stop being sappy and let's go beat the truth out of your family," I said jokingly, hugging him back.

* * *

Elith, the sheets

* * *

Once we got back to town Liath split off to go find his team and the rest of us immediately went to the sheets, they were sure to show up there more than once and it was the best place to find them. As I walked in, the elderly owner of the place waved at me.

"Hello Elith, you had two callers while you were away," He said. "One was a police officer and the other claimed to be a friend of yours."

"If the friend returns, send them up to my room if you will," I said with a smile.

"Will do mam," He said happily. With that, we headed upstairs and entered me and Isaacs room. Everyone hid inside Isaac's room and I sat and waited in my room, we waited for an hour before I started to notice something. It was growing hot in here, I checked the thermostat and saw that it hadn't been set any higher. It was still snowing quite heavily outside, so that would have nothing to do with it. Then I heard it, a crackle, the crackle of a fire that quickly grew to a roar. I opened my door and looked outside, a fire was burning along the hallway. I opened Isaac's room and saw everyone checking the thermostat and looking confused.

"They're smoking us out, literally!" I said.

"Let's get out the windows, fastest way," Clara said.

"That's what they want us to do, I'm willing to bet they're waiting for us outside our window for us to jump out," Isaac said.

"What do we do then?" Clara asked.

"Elith, use wind dust to guide us out to the front door, then we can take them by surprise from the side," Erik commanded. I immediately withdrew some wind dust and kicked opened the door, I quickly created a sphere of swirling winds around the four of us, extinguishing and pushing back flames as we walked. It didn't take long to get down the stairs and out the front doors, we could see the flame through windows in the building and the blazing source in the lobby.

"I hope the other people got out okay," Isaac said.

"So do I," Clara said.

"Well, listen up guys, here's our plan of attack," Erik began, gesturing for everyone to come close.

* * *

Erik, Isaac, Clara, Elith, Vale

* * *

"The fire should definitely be in the room by now, why haven't they come out yet?" Draht asked.

"Perhaps the man at the desk was lying," Braun said.

"I doubt it, this was the only business he had," Heron said. "Our threat to burn the place down would've inspired honesty from him, no doubt about it."

"Don't worry, he was honest," Isaac said, walking into the alleyway with Elith walking ahead of him. "Not that it helped him with the fire threat."

"Our threat was that he would watch us burn down his business, we fulfilled our promise," Rippe said, laughing to himself. "As promised, he can't watch it burn."

"Keep laughing Rippe, after all, there are only so many jokes you're smart enough to get," Isaac said.

"Keep making jokes Isaac, best to die with a grin on your face," Draht said. Elith took a step forward angrily sticking a hand into one of her sweater pockets.

"We don't plan on dying today," Elith said.

"Nobody plans on dying sweetheart, but you don't have a choice against all of us," Braun said.

"I suppose there's some truth to that," Elith admitted. "If I'm going to die could I ask some questions then?"

"I'll grant you that, depending on the questions," Heron said.

"How did you make the framing so perfect, leaving no DNA but Isaac's?" Elith asked. "How could you collect so many samples without waking him up?"

"The answer would be in my son Rippe, his semblance allows him to change the DNA of dead cells like blood and hair and whatnot," Heron said proudly. "Any mark we left became Isaac's, making a perfect framing."

"Fascinating, but what was your reason for framing him in the first place?" Elith asked, her voice dripping with morbid curiosity. "You could've easily killed him in his sleep or fought him right off the bat."

"Why are you even asking these questions, it's not like knowing the answer matters or anything," Braun said.

"I'm a sleuth at heart, I'd hate to die with my last case a total mystery," Elith explained.

"That's your last question girl, we did it to make him pay," Heron said. "To make him relive what he went through with that filthy faunus Hearth, killing him would've hardly pained him as much as the framing would've."

"Thanks for sating my curiosity," Elith said with a grin, reaching into her sweater pocket again.

"Finally, let's fight them!" Braun said happily.

Elith raised grabbed her new weapons and prepared them for battle, she had chosen to name the shotel 'Anguis' and the dagger 'Damnum'. Isaac drew his Knixes, Braun popped his knuckles, Draht withdrew a whip cracking with electricity, Rippe removed his greatsword from his back, and Heron unzipped her sleeves to reveal arm blades. She quickly rushed forward at Heron, swinging Anguis as hard as she could. Heron stood calmly, dodging at the last moment and slashing out at Elith's exposed back. Elith fell to the ground before Rippe, who raised his greatsword with a grin.

"Hope you liked your answers," He said, before swinging down at Elith. The greatsword struck true, and Elith's lower torso was severed from her upper half. Blood spilt onto the ground from Elith, but she just laid there laughing to herself.

"I was quite pleased with my answers, thanks for asking," Elith said, weakly grabbing at her sweater.

"What kind of-" Rippe said, a horrified expression etched onto his face.

"I was getting there, you got played, moron," Elith said, managing to lift up her sweater to reveal multiple crystals of ice dust impaled into her chest. Elith suddenly exploded into a storm of ice spikes, knocking everyone to the ground. Isaac quickly struck out at his mother who had fallen at his feet, knowing not to give her a moment of pause. Draht was up first from the blast looking around confused for a moment before understanding dawning on her face.

"It was a clone, keep your eyes peeled for the actual girl," Draht said to her brothers. Braun merely nodded before running over and easily drop kicking Isaac off of Heron, allowing her to get up.

"You're going to pay for the cheap tricks Isaac." She said, grinning wickedly. She took a single step forward before looking up to display an expression of surprise. Clara dropped down from the roof, kicking Heron back into the ground.

"Get off our mother you damned animal!" Rippe yelled at Clara. He made to charge her, but was cut off by being struck in the back. He turned around to see Elith standing there, fire dancing on her fingertips.

"You'd better be a better fighter than your brother," She said. "Or are you going to be just as stupid."

Draht looked about for someone to help before hearing someone behind her, she turned to see Erik entering the alleyway.

"Nice whip, it's a good weapon," Erik said.

"Who the fuck are you people, this is a family matter!" Draht said, clearly exasperated.

"We're Isaac's new family, his matters are ours," Erik answered raising Homicida and buckler Invicta. Draht didn't take kindly to this and she swung out at Erik, leaving a trail of electricity behind her weapon. The electricity didn't dissipate, it just hung frozen in the air. Erik didn't waste time wondering and ducked under the arc, then he bashed out with Invicta as he pulled himself up. The bash knocked Draht off balance and she replied by swinging wildly, leaving more frozen trails of electricity in her wake. As Erik was engaged in this fight, Elith was nimbly dodging blow after blow from Rippe. While he was having trouble striking her, Elith couldn't find a good opening. There was too much strength behind his blows for her to try parrying him, and Elith didn't have the time to conjure more than small firebolts before needing to dodge again.

"Classic Atlas kid, you talk big but you can't do shit to me!" Rippe laughed, one could immediately tell that his comment got to Elith. Her fists tightened around her weapons and she leapt backwards, creating two clones between her and Rippe.

"Don't call me an Atlas kid," Elith said as she raised her hands to the sky, the red and the brown colours draining from her sweater. "I worked hard to get removed from that title." Rocks surrounded by halo's of flame started forming over the alleyway, and Rippe began to look nervous.

After wrestling for a bit, Heron managed to get out from under Clara and stand up.

"You'll pay for that cat," Heron growled, with that her form started to shift. Heron began to blur, it looked like she was performing multiple actions at the same time, but each action faded in seconds. The result was a confusing storm of afterimages centred around Heron, then she rushed at Clara. The blur charged at Clara, who had no idea which action to block. Clara dodged back and swung out, cutting through a blocking image and making contact with the real Heron. Clara was on the run again in no time though, it was impossible to figure out which strike was real and she wouldn't risk it. Meanwhile, Isaac faced off with Braun. Isaac made quick strikes against Braun, but Braun was able to do the same. Braun started working to back Isaac against a wall, cutting him off from the others. Isaac wasn't able to avoid it, to occupied with blocking and trying to get in damage. With a well-timed kick, Braun took Isaac's legs out from under him and raised Braun his hands to strike his brother. Braun was given no such chance as he was struck by a superheated boulder, knocking him straight to the ground. Elith gave Isaac a thumbs up before returning to her fight, she'd dealt some heavy blows to Rippe with her meteor trick and was fairly confident about the fight now. Then Rippe did something unexpected, he dropped his weapons and lunged at Elith. Not expecting such an attack, his hands grasped her neck before she could react. She fired a bit of electricity from her sleeves, but it just froze in the air before it could get anywhere. Then Ripped slammed Elith into a nearby wall, he pulled her back to do it again before he was struck by two whips simultaneously, causing him to drop her. Erik grinned at his success in baiting Draht to strike Rippe, the grin didn't stay long as Draht continued to assail him. The spot they fought in was becoming innavigable due to the arcs of lightning filling the air, and Erik wasn't willing to test how the lightning felt just yet. He and Draht had kept even blows so far, but he was pretty sure her clever use of her semblance might win in the end. And that was when a very stupid idea came to Erik, he intentionally cornered himself. Draht saw her chance and charged at Erik, swinging her whip overhead. Erik rushed to greet her, coming in low and tackling her into a mess of the frozen lightning. As she lost focus from the sudden hit, all the lightning unfroze and struck the two of them. Their already weakened aura's depleted quickly and they both fell unconscious from the shock.

"Damnit, Draht!" Heron cursed, her attention lapsing. Clara leapt at the opportunity and punched with both her gauntlets, releasing a blast of wind and a gout of fire. Heron was launched to the floor and got up just before Clara leapt at them whilst swinging her swords. Heron easily dodged and shoved Clara to the floor. "Back off cat."

"I'm not a cat, I know you're an idiot and everything, but the word you're looking for is faunus," Clara laughed getting up and checking her aura count. "If you're going to call me anything, you might as well call me Grimm, because I have more in common with them."

"What do you mean?" Heron asked, cautiously prepping for anything.

"Wouldn't you like to know," Clara said, launching into a violent flurry of blows with her swords. Heron had trouble keeping up with the speed of the blows, taking a few hits before getting a handle on the situation.

"You're in the red, any last words?" Heron asked.

"I'm-" Clara started

"Somebody help me!" Rippe cried out, he was hovering quite high in the air. Elith was holding out her hands and slowly pulling them further from each other. "She's trying to rip me in half!"

"No, I'm not going to kill you," Elith said. "I'm going to arrest you." Heron quickly disengaged from Clara, running up and kicking Elith to the ground. With her focus broken, Rippe fell to Remnant and cushioned his fall with the last of his aura.

"Grab Erik and Draht, we can still get something out of this," Heron said to Rippe. "Braun, cover us, we're retreating." Rippe backed off from Elith and ran over to Draht and Erik, easily hefting the two of them onto his shoulders. Clara went to stophim, but was shoved to the ground by Braun as he disengaged from Isaac. As Heron slipped by with Rippe, Braun increased his size and blocked the path of their pursuers.

* * *

Isaac, Vale

* * *

We weren't fighting Braun for very long, after a bit, he backed off and took advantage of his long legs. And we were left standing in the alleyway, with Erik kidnapped.

"Why did they take Erik?" Elith asked.

"Because he still has a bounty on his head, the one put there by his 'mom'," I explained. "My family picked up on that bounty, and they clearly didn't forget about it."

"So you're telling me that they could be taking him anywhere right now?" Clara asked.

"Not quite, I think our best bet is that his 'mom' would be awaiting his return in Mistral," Elith deducted.

"But Cinder was here at Beacon, leading the assault, she wouldn't be in Mistal," Clara said.

"Cinder's her name?" Elith asked. "Well, Cinder's assault was probably part of a bigger deal, I'd bet everything I own on it."

"You don't just specifically target a hunters academy in a super convoluted plot if you don't plan on doing more," Isaac said.

"Even if it's not for visiting home, Mistral seems like the logical choice for movement after Vale," Elith said. "She may be plotting to perform a similar attack on Haven or she may be planning to disappear for a bit, both make sense for Mistral."

"I guess you're right, but I don't want to risk being wrong," Clara said. "A wrong choice would mean losing Erik."

" _There is one method of confirming that you haven't thought of,"_ Dad suddenly said, it scared the piss out of me because he never spoke with people around.

"What?" I asked, surprised.

"Was something confusing?" Clara asked.

"I wasn't talking to you, hold on," I said.

" _If you checked your messages from me like a good son would, you'd know every little thing about the job,"_ Dad continued. " _I linked you the case file, it auto-syncs to an off-grid transmitter, any new details are loaded up already."_

"Like where he needs to be taken?" I asked.

" _Wow you're not a total imbecile,"_ Dad jested. " _All it took was me basically telling you precisely what you needed to do and you figured it out."_

"Why are you helping me?" I asked.

" _Because I didn't realise that my family was full of damnable cowards, I want you to hunt them down,"_ Dad said. " _That way, either you die and I'm satisfied, or they pay for their cowardice and I'm satisfied."_

"Thanks?" I said as I withdrew my scroll and checked our text history. Sure enough, there was a link to an encrypted server, I opened it to reveal the details about Erik I had seen once before. I read the mission details and noted that they had been updated not too long ago, it stated to deliver Erik to a spot outside of Mistral.

"Looks like we have to head to Mistral," I said.

 **Author's notes**

 **Well, that was pretty neat if I do say so myself, one really neat chapter.**


	55. To Mistral

Chapter 55

To Mistral

* * *

Erik, ?

* * *

Before my eyes opened, I heard the hum of engines. I opened up my eyes to see that I was in a Bullhead, and Draht was sitting across from me.

"Look who's awake," She said, Braun suddenly came into view.

"That was a ballsy move, Erik, tackling her into her own traps," Braun said.

"More like an unintelligent move, look where it landed him," Draht said, gesturing to the ship.

"Where am I?" I asked.

"In a bullhead, idiot," Braun said.

"Thanks captain obvious, I meant where is the bullhead?" I specified.

"Watch it with quips like that, you're in chains right now," Braun said, I looked down to see that my hands and legs were in fact bound by chains.

"We're just now flying over Anima, should be in Mistral in a few hours," Draht said. "You're headed home." I didn't have a mirror, but I knew that my expression just paled instantly.

"What's the matter, you don't want to be home?" Braun asked with a cruel laugh.

"Not at all, I was actually hoping to never go home again," I said, trying to regain some composure. I didn't want to know what Cinder had in mind for me if I did fall back into her hands, I really didn't want to learn the repercussions of my actions.

"Too bad you've got little choice in the matter," Draht said. "With the pay upped to one hundred and fifty thousand liens, this is too valuable to pass up."

"I know Cinder, whatever deal you've made with her will screw you over in the end," I said, going off of some things she had taught me when I was younger. 'Never make a plan where you aren't the sole beneficiary, everything should serve your ends first.'

"Nobody can screw over the Blythe family, trust me," Braun said. "We're unscrewable."

"Well I only needed to see your face to know that second part," I jested. "But the first part is a flat out lie, everyone can get screwed over."

"Why you little," He said angrily, suddenly the ship rocked and he stumbled over.

"What was that?" Draht asked.

"Grimm, a murder of Nevermores to be precise," Heron called back from the cockpit. "Handle them." Draht and Braun quickly equipped pairs of boots.

"What are the boots for?" I asked.

"They're magnetised, makes this next part easier," Draht explained. As she said that, the doors to the outside opened and strong winds began blowing through the once closed environment.

Sure enough, many Nevermore of all sizes were closing in on the ship. Braun grabbed an assault rifle off the walls of the bullhead and began firing into the murder, knocking a few out of the air. Draht used her electric tricks to keep Nevermore from approaching the back of the ship. This seemed really standard order for them, they were calm and hardly seemed concerned. Maybe that was just their overconfidence, in fact, it was definitely overconfidence due to what happened next. The bullhead rocked again as a Nevermore came from below and latched its talons onto the ship. I could see it beating its immense wings to pull the bullhead down.

"Get that thing off of us!" Heron yelled back at us.

"There are too many," Draht asked. "since when did so many Nevermore show up in one place?" I was confused as well. Suddenly I remembered one of the few useful things that professor Port had managed to ingrain in my head.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"What time?" Draht asked. "What makes you think this is a good time to ask that?"

"Because if it's ten o'clock, you are all idiots," I said. "Nevermores tend to patrol coastlines in the early morning to seek out ships and planes."

"How do you know that?" Braun asked, firing into the talons.

"Getting an education," I said, he seemed like he was about to retort before alarms started going off.

"Brace for impact, I'm crushing this beast!" Heron called back, almost immediately I started seeing trees flying by the window.

"What kind of plan is this!" I called out.

"The last resort!" Heron replied. After that, the bullhead quite suddenly crashed into the ground.

* * *

Isaac, Patch

* * *

It was about a half-hour after the fight with my family, seven forty-six to be exact, and we were all in a panicked rush already.

"You're sure you have travelling supplies in your house, Clara?" I asked.

"Definitely, Dusty had a few packs for long treks or camping trips," Clara explained. "Probably for when the family visited."

"That's good, all we need is clothes now," Elith said.

"I can grab a few changes at my house, and I'm sure I have clothes that'd fit you Elith," Clara said.

"I'll grab some of Erik's clothes, grab a bag for me," I said, running off to the Xiao Long household. I slipped through the front door and crept upstairs, not wanting to risk any residents seeing me and knowing about my case. I slipped into Erik's room and grabbed a variety of clothes from his closet, bundling them up and making a hasty exit. I trudged through the snow to Clara's place as quickly as I could and spotted someone walking up to the front door.

"Dusty, is that you?" I asked.

"Oh hey Isaac, didn't expect to see you here," Dusty said, waving. "I guess Clara's home then?"

"Yeah, I'm actually really glad you're here Dusty," I said.

"Why's that?" He asked with a look of confusion and concerning going across his face.

"Come in, we'll explain," I said.

* * *

Elith, Dusty's home

* * *

"So that's the pile of steaming shit we're in right now," Isaac said as he stuffed bundles of clothing into a backpack.

"I understand, I'll help you three in any way I can," Dusty said, pulling out his scroll and tapping a few things. "In fact, I'm ditching my to-do list, I'm coming with you three."

"Really?" I asked.

"You three are still hunters in training, I can't have you all heading into the wilds all on your lonesome," Dusty asked. "What kind of person would I be?"

"I was hoping you'd offer, you probably know your way around better than most," I said with a sigh of relief. "Do you have a car?"

"No, not that it would help if I did," Dusty said. "Country roads aren't made for cars, a motorcycle could get by, but I haven't got three or four of those laying about."

"We're going to have to speed up travel somehow," Isaac said. "My family has a bullhead, so they have a head-start."

"Head-start?" Dusty asked. "They'll be there before we'd ever make it, even with a car."

"Not if they make the mistake I think they will," Isaac said. "They're blinded by greed, they'll be making a beeline for Mistral."

"How's that help?" Dusty asked.

"They'll hit the coast around ten, you know what that means?" Elith explained, Dusty laughed in response.

"Those bastards won't last long in the air," Dusty said. "They'll crash into the trees if they know what's good for them."

"They'll know to do that, then they'll wait for the Nevermores to leave," Isaac said. "Once they're on foot, we'll start making the ground we lost."

"You two thought this up quickly, Erik's lucky to have you two on his side," Dusty commended us as he quickly re-stocked the bag he'd already had for the mission he'd been on.

"Clara, we'll all be ready to leave soon!" Elith called up. "Don't be dallying."

"I'm not dallying," Clara said as she opened her door, carrying her backpack and a grey mask. It was a mask of a Beowolf, then I realised it was Dakota's bone mask.

"I thought you buried him?" I asked.

"I couldn't, he still dissolved, just slowly," She replied. "I decided to make something to remember him with using the one part that didn't dissolve."

* * *

Clara, Vale

* * *

We carefully made our way through Vale, taking alleys and tunnels to avoid police. Elith had the confession we'd recorded but said we'd save more time going now than spending time arguing Isaac's innocence to the court. We'd be able to ride a plane that way, but Erik would be in Cinder's clutches by that time. Eventually, we reached the wall between Vale and the world, it wasn't as impressive as one would expect. We slipped by the checkpoint at the wall and started walking along the dirt path, into unknown territory.

"So you were saying we could get vehicles out here?" Elith asked.

"It'll cost some lien, but there's a stable up ahead where we can purchase some horses," Dusty said. "Quality horses, trained to be low-maintenance and good for outrunning Grimm." As he said so, we entered a clearing with a rather large building taking up most of it. The smell of dung and piss radiated from the building, making everyone but me pinch their noses.

"Hate smells worse," I said with a shrug. As we approached the building, a well-dressed man with combed blonde hair approached.

"Hello, hello!" He said joyously. "How may I help you, fine travellers?"

"Hello Shiv, the names Dusty Peon," Dusty said, holding out a hand.

"A Peon? what a fine day it is!" Shiv said, clasping Dusty's hands.

"Do you two know each other?" Elith asked.

"The Peon family funded this enterprise, thanks to them I have one of these buildings outside every kingdom," Shiv explained. "I'm assuming you'll want four horses with your discount?"

"Yes please," Dusty said. "Bring me the best you have."

"Right away sir," Shiv said, hurrying off into the stables.

"Lucky thing that he was the proprietor, would've been awkward to get the name wrong," Dusty said. We waited for a minute or so before Shiv returned with four horses, leading one to each of us. Dusty handed the man a few lien and mounted the bald-faced dun horse that had been brought to him. Elith took the reins of the black horse with full stockings and awkwardly mounted it. I easily leapt up on my white horse with a black dorsal stripe, it looked interesting. Isaac took the chestnut horse with a white star upon its face, he mounted it quickly.

"Thanks for the horses Shiv, best of luck to you," Dusty said, and with that, we nudged our horses to go along the road. Except for Elith, who couldn't figure out how to make her horse do what she wanted.

 **Author's notes**

 **Elith isn't good with horses, she never had any practice with them.**


	56. The Wild

Chapter 56

The wild

* * *

Clara, Road

* * *

"Come on Têtu, just work with me here!" Elith complained as her horse once again halted because she accidentally pulled back on the reins. This was the eighth time she'd done this, and each time she thought it was the horse being stubborn rather than her own it wasn't slowing us down too much, it didn't take long to get Têtu moving again. I decided to tell her what she was doing wrong after the twelfth time, that's when it will stop being funny.

"Why'd you name your horse?" Isaac asked. "We'll probably be ditching them once we have to get on a boat."

"Actually most ferries have accommodations for horses out here, so we'll be keeping the horses as we get into Mistral," Dusty countered. "Hopefully we'll keep these horses with us for the trip there and back."

"I still don't get naming them," Isaac said.

"Because it's fun," I explained. "That's why I call mine Itzil, it distinguishes him and is far less boring than calling him a horse."

"I don't get it, but do what you feel," Isaac said. "When's the next stop?"

"The villages get more sparse after that last one, we'll probably be camping tonight and maybe tomorrow as well," Dusty said. "I have an idea to save time though."

"What is it?" Elith asked as she struggled to keep Têtu in a straight line.

"Since we are at greater risk camping out here, we could continue moving at night," Dusty said. "We could tie the horses in a train and sleep on them, the person in the lead could keep watch and we'd switch off like normal."

"That's smart, where'd you think of that?" I asked.

"That pearl wasn't my idea, it came from a friend of mine," Dusty said. "One of my old teammates."

"You've never mentioned your team before, who were they?" I asked.

"Only the best group of misfits you've ever seen, team BLDE," Dusty said proudly. "We were a group to be reckoned with thanks to how well we could synergise."

"Team blade?" Isaac asks. "That name alone is great."

"It was, our leader Brim would always find it funny how only one of us used bladed weapons," Dusty said with a chuckle. "He was a charismatic guy, wielded a battle axe and had a hilarious semblance."

"What was his semblance?" I asked.

"It was funny because he'd always forget that he'd used it and that it didn't fit his personality at all," Dusty said. "Whenever his aura fell into the red, he would become invincible and go berserk for a minute."

"And he wouldn't remember what happened afterwards?" Elith asked.

"Not at all, when we were in the emerald forest together at initiation it triggered for him and he took on a giant deathstalker one on one," Dusty said. "To him, he blacked out and woke up on its corpse."

"Must've been confusing for him," I said, Dusty laughed and nodded.

"Next up was Lily, don't let her cute, innocent name fool you, she was an absolute metalhead and a fairly brutal fighter," Dusty recalls. "She wielded two drumsticks and could turn them into spears, they were deadly in both forms to the surprise of those around her."

"Sounds awesome," Isaac noted.

"Quite, her semblance made her even more terrifying," Dusty said. "She could amplify or reduce sound, she could whack people with her drumsticks and deafen them for a good while."

"Sounds helpful," Elith noted.

"Surprisingly so, it also helped to hold secret conversations," Dusty said. "She could make it imperceivable to those around you."

"Who was the E in the group?" I asked.

"Eve, she was a quiet type, liked animals more than people," Dusty said. "Kept four pet ravens in our room, makes sense seeing as her semblance was controlling animals."

"So she could summon hordes of animals to help in combat?" Isaac asked.

"Only if they were in sight, she'd sometimes seek out wolf packs before we went on missions to bring them with us," Dusty remembered.

"Where are they today?" I asked.

"Lily has gone to solo work, though she sometimes calls me up to help her with a mission or two," Dusty said. "Eve settled down in Mistral to help guard it against Grimm, and Brim…" Dusty trailed off, clearly uncomfortable. "Brim is dead, he died saving our asses on a mission."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Isaac and Elith said, I leaned over and patted him on the back.

"It's fine, it's an occupational hazard and we all knew the risk," Dusty said. "Let's just get back to riding."

* * *

Erik, The coast of Anima

* * *

I sat, twiddling my thumbs, not much else one can do when chained to a tree. We'd been camped at the crash site for three days and the flock was slowly thinning out, between losing interest and being shot down. Thankfully they hadn't been able to get through the dense trees of the forest, but that was all I had to be thankful for. Rippe and Braun were busy warding the Nevermore's off with what was left of the ships ammo stock, Heron was sitting on a rock looking exceptionally cross, and Draht was hanging upside down from a tree branch with a bored expression.

"So what's the plan for when we run out of ammo?" I ask Heron, her expression soured just that much more.

"We won't, we're stocked for events like this," Heron said. "It's not the first time we've dealt with something like this."

"You're telling me this has happened to you guys before and you still made the mistake of flying on the coast in the early morning?" I asked.

"I don't care how much you're worth Erik, I will come over there and stab you," Heron threatened. "All that this job states is that you need to be alive, it doesn't say anything about you not having a new scar."

"Okay, I'll stop," I concede.

"Aww, but I was enjoying his quips," Draht complained. "You can't blame him for being witty."

"You're right, I can't, but I can still be angry about it," Heron replied. "Especially if it's practically non-stop."

"Sorry, humour is the only thing keeping me from breaking down," I explained. "I'm not exactly on route to the most pleasant of situations right now."

"It might not be a pleasant situation, but I doubt she'll kill you," Heron said.

"What makes you think that?" I asked.

"Nobody pays this much and asks for the mark alive if they plan on killing them, I'm sure you're going to live," Heron said.

"I'd prefer to be dead rather than alive in Cinder's clutches, is there anything I could do to dissuade you guys from taking me to her?" I asked

"How many lien do you have access to?" Heron said, leaning forward. "Top her price by even one lien and you're free to go."

"I don't have the lien, but," I said, racking my brain for anything I could possibly offer. "I have my sword and my shield, and I am far from unskilled with them."

"What are you suggesting?" Heron said, her scowl leaving and a curious expression replacing it.

"Turning me in gives you a short-term reward, but I could be of long-term use if you took me into your group," I said. I would honestly join up with these people if it meant avoiding my mother's grasp, any cost was worth avoiding that. "I could earn my current worth and more by working with you guys."

"What a curious suggestion, we don't generally get that kind of an offer from captives," Draht commented. "You're a weird one."

"We aren't a group Erik, we're a family," Heron said. "This is a family business and I doubt you have a drop of Blythe blood in you unless something happened between you and Isaac I need to know about."

"I'm sure not everyone in your family has the same blood, surely people marry in or get adopted at some point?" I asked. Heron laughed a bit at that.

"You're a bit old to get adopted, and we don't run arranged marriages just to get people into the family," Heron said. "Looks like you're out of offers on this front." I sigh, it was worth a shot. We returned to silence for a short while before I heard Braun barreling into camp.

"The Nevermores have dispersed, let's get this show on the road," He said.

* * *

Isaac, The Wilds

* * *

Night had fallen a while ago, but I wasn't able to fall asleep so everyone else slept while I kept watch. I didn't really want to, I knew that my dad would torment me if I slept. I always knew he was plotting something when he stayed quiet when he had the opportunity to speak. I guess I was lucky that my brain had decided to start casting doubt on our plan, I was worried about Erik and that was giving me trouble sleeping. Suddenly I heard Elith shifting behind me, she pulled herself up and wrapped herself up in the blanket she'd been keeping between herself and Têtu's hair.

"You should get rest Isaac, why are you still up?" She asked. "I know it's hard to rest on these beasts, but I'm sure you can find a way to get comfy."

"That's not why I'm up," I said. "I'm just worried."

"What are you worrying about?" Elith said.

"I'm worried about whether we were right about the murder of Nevermores being able to take down the bullhead," I said.

"Your family can't take on a murder of Nevermore in the air, they'll definitely be crashed and camping till tonight at least," Elith replied. "And they'll be on foot after this, so we'll definitely catch up."

"I know, but I'm just concerned," I said.

"No need to feel concerned when facts are there to back you up," Elith said. "That's how I've been calming myself down."

"You're right, I should have more faith in you," I said.

"Don't have faith in me, faith is blind," Elith said. "Just trust me, trust is built on something."

"I do trust you Elith, you're the most trustworthy person I know," I said.

"That's surely exaggerating it a bit," Elith said, a small smile going onto her face.

"You've never lied to me, and you're the most truth-obsessed person I know," I replied. "If there's anything I can count on you for, it's your honesty."

"I've got nothing else but my honesty?" Elith joked.

"Not at all, there's plenty more to like about you," I said. "Your intelligence, reliability, and your unique form of kindness have endeared you to me." Elith went slightly red, did I anger her somehow?

"Don't say things like that," Elith said.

"What, I was just answering a question," I said, confused.

"You didn't have to answer like that," Elith retorted. I thought about what I said, I could only think of so much.

"Did I make it weird by saying I like you or was it the endearing part?" I asked. "I didn't mean it like that." She reddened slightly more and looked slightly, disappointed? What was I supposed to say, now she's just angrier?

"Nevermind, none of that would've bothered me," Elith said. "Just go to sleep, I'll keep the next shift." I was glad to abandon the confusing conversation, I pulled out my blanket and laid forward onto my horse. Wasn't there a reason I didn't want to sleep?

"You really are an imbecile, you know that?" My dad asked, now I remember.

* * *

Elith, the wilds

* * *

I should just tell him, that makes the most sense for handling the situation, but the situation itself didn't make sense to me. Either result of that action wasn't good, either I feel bad or I break a promise to myself. Têtu snorted derisively and looked back at me with his big judging eyes.

"What do you know," I retort to him. Great, now I've descended to speaking with my horse. How much longer do I have to go before this problem fades away, people get over these things right? It didn't matter right now, I should be focused on the task at hand. I decided to put thought into our search for Erik, where we might find him. I knew he'd survive the crash and that the Blythes would do well with setting up camp and keeping him safe, but how long until they leave. I estimate that if they stay in one place, they'd be held down for about three days. That means they at least left camp today, and we are about three days of travel from Anima. We'd reach the port town we were heading to in a day and a half, and sea travel would be about another day and a half if we caught a good vessel. On foot, the Blythes won't make it far in three days, but they will have a headstart into the mainland which left us to do some guesswork on what path they took. My bet is that they would take the most direct route, but they may take a longer route in order to reach a village to acquire horses. That option presents a wildcard, as there could be a new village less than a day from them or an established village three weeks from them. Whatever the choice, this was my only source of concern for our goal. With our night and day travelling I'm sure that we'd have no problem catching up, the problem was finding the right trail. This was a problem to face in Mistral, but it was good to put some forethought into these matters. It also helped me get my mind off of Isaac.

 **Author's notes**

 **Filler chapters are filler, we are all shocked and surprised.**


	57. Seafaring

Chapter 57

Seafaring

* * *

Clara, Yorsh

* * *

Like Dusty had said, we reached a small port town named Yorsh by mid-day where we could find a ship to take us. Dusty headed to the docks to search for a boat while the rest of us were to restock our supplies. Elith and Isaac went to buy food while I went searching for ammunition and general supplies. I took some .308 ammo for my rifle, grabbed some 12 gauge shells for Isaac, and I managed to find a few rough cuts of dust for Elith. As I shopped, I started to think about something, what did everyone back home think happened to us. We'd left really quickly and hadn't said goodbye to anyone, I didn't even have a chance to hug Yang goodbye. Shit, wasn't this precisely why she was already pissed at Blake for? She was already annoyed with me, I'm sure this wouldn't help with that at all. I checked out while making an effort to not slap myself for my idiocy, wouldn't want to do that with poorly cut dust dangling from my arms. I walked outside and made my way to the docks to meet up with Dusty, cursing under my breath the entire way.

"Hey, cat, what are you doing with that Grimm mask there?" I heard someone say, I was confused for a moment before remembering that I did, in fact, have Dakota's mask hanging from my backpack. I ignored the person and continued walking, I knew the accusation they had to throw and I didn't feel like hearing it. "Don't walk away from me, pirate," Nevermind, that's a new one.

"I'm not a pirate, what would tell you that?" I retorted.

"The mask and the tail, you're one of that wretched crew of Faunus pirates plaguing these waters!" They replied. "How about we go talk to the city watch, if you'r-" The man never finished his sentence, Elith turned up out of nowhere and shoved him off the dock and into the water.

"Was that idiot giving you trouble?" She asked.

"He thought I was a pirate," I replied, I noticed that the people around us weren't looking too pleased with me and Elith. "We should go find Dusty."

"I'd agree," Elith said.

* * *

Isaac, The Triton

* * *

Dusty had landed us with a journey on a boat called the Triton, our horses were loaded up and we were on our way in no time. There were only a few fellow passengers on the boat, and the crew kept to themselves mostly. The ship wasn't large, but it looked sturdy and had more than one weapon attached to it, I guess that made sense seeing as there would be Grimm and apparently a crew of pirates in these waters. The four of us gathered on the deck as the ship prepared for departure, Clara was looking out at the waters with a childish grin on her face while Elith and Dusty discussed something in private.

"What's making you so happy?" I asked.

"I've never properly seen the ocean before, back in Vale we were seeing more of a bay," Clara answered. "And I think it looks beautiful, I can't wait to set sail."

"Who would've thought you'd be the one eager to go to sea," I mused.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Clara asked.

"Nothing," I said, deciding to leave stupid cat jokes and puns to Yang.

"Erik's the one who has trouble being on ships, he's going to make the return trip hell," Clara laughed. "It'll be both sad and absolutely hilarious to watch."

"Yeah, I hope he can become adjusted to the ride after the first day," I said. "The ride will be a lot slower coming back."

"Why's that?" Clara asked.

"Dusty paid a lot to get us a rather speedy boat, he probably can't afford the same kind of trip for the return," I explained. "So we'll be on the next boat for more than a day and a half."

"Poor Erik," Clara said. "Thirty lien says he jokes about wishing we hadn't saved him after he gets on the boat."

"I'll take you up on that," I replied, we were silent for a moment as we both looked out at the sea. Suddenly I heard an engine start and the ship began to move forward rapidly, causing me to stumble backwards and almost fall over. Clara remained perfectly balanced at the rails, seeming to hardly notice the shift.

"Well, that was faster than I anticipated," Dust noted, he had toppled and was now trapped in a mess of his own trench coat. He righted himself and picked up his tricorn, dusting it off and making sure it was fine before placing it on his head.

"You knew it was fast, you should've braced," Elith said as she held on tightly to the railing.

"Don't give me sass Elith," Dusty joked, Dusty and I returned to the rails and the four of us watched Yorsh fade from sight behind us.

* * *

Erik, Anima

* * *

I watched as Braun finished off the last Ursa in the pack that had ambushed us as we marched.

"I could help you know, an extra pair of hands would make these fights slow us down less," I mentioned, gesturing to my bound hands.

"For the eighteenth time Erik, we aren't stupid enough to untie your hands and arm you," Heron said.

"I'm not dumb enough to try fighting you guys, I'm honestly trying to be helpful," I said. "And what if some Grimm slip past you guys, do you want me to get mauled when you're supposed to deliver me alive?"

"You have legs and combat training, avoid them," Heron replied. "You don't need weapons to avoid getting hit."

"Could I at least have my gauntlet back, it's not a weapon," I asked. "It's just a shield."

"No matter how much you pester me about this, I'm not cutting you loose," Heron said. "If annoyance was all it took for me to do that, I would not be in this business."

"I'm being realistic, not ann-" I started. I was shortly interrupted by an Ursa crashing through the treeline and tackling me to the ground, it pinned me and went to bite me. It had no such opportunity as its head was swiftly removed by Heron, she shoved it's body to the ground. "See, if I'd had my hands available-" Heron swiftly cut the bindings off of my hands and pulled me towards her.

"I'm not giving you your weapons back, I'm not giving you your shield back, I will let you have free hands," Heron said. "If you try running, I will not hesitate to hamstring you and put those bindings back on."

"Thanks, I won't try running," I replied. "I only wanted this so I could have an easier time of not dying."

"Sure you did, don't make me regret this," Heron said, pushing me back and walking off.

* * *

Elith, The Triton

* * *

Night had fallen and a full moon illuminated the deck and only people on it, Clara was at the bow staring at the sea with that same wondrous look she'd had since we boarded and Isaac was playing dice games with Dusty.

"Clara, surely the sea loses it's intrigue after a while," I joked. "You've been looking at it for nine hours now, other than glances at the sky."

"Come up here and I can show you what's so interesting," Clara said, I obliged and staggered my way up to the rails. "It's just like the desert in Vacuo in a lot of ways, there are no discernable landmarks and it seems easy to lose your way."

"How's that interesting?" I asked.

"Because you can know exactly where you are in the same way, the stars are the best navigation tool," Clara explained, she then pointed to a section of "Look at that Cluster of stars up there, we've been heading straight for them this whole time."

"So you're saying that those stars are at Mistral?" I asked.

"Not necessarily, I mean that they are just a reference point," Clara explained. "I find that fascinating, sea travel is interesting."

"Who would've thought this would fas-" I started as the ship suddenly rocked and knocked me to the floor.

"We've got trouble!" One of the crew members shouted from the cockpit.

"What kind?" Dusty called up. "We could help!" As he said this, a giant inky black octopus tentacle rose from the water and began reaching towards the boat.

"A Kraken, just great!" The crew member shouted. "Someone fire the damn cannons!" I took out a crystal of lightning dust and an ice dust crystal as well and began prepping a new attack I'd read up on. Clara pulled out her rifle and fired a few rounds into the monster, hardly making it twitch.

"What's a Kraken?" Isaac asked, knowing his weapons were practically useless right now.

"A rather rare Grimm, finding one of this size is actually rather extraordinary," Dusty said. "We should hold our heads high if we slay this beast, assuming we survive of course."

"That's really reassuring Dusty!" Clara said, continuing to fire into the tentacle. Suddenly the ship cannons finally went off and knock the tentacle away from the ship, but not severing it to any degree. The tentacle retracted into the water once more and all was silent for a moment before the water began to bubble intensely as an immense head of an octopus rose from the depths. Its head was as large, if not larger than our ship and covered by an immense boney carapace like any other. Six tentacles rose from the water to assail us, black as night and hard to see against the water. I quickly finished my ritual and clouds instantly began to form in the sky, crackling with electricity and forming dagger sharp pieces of hail. I guided both forces to strike the monstrosity, the lightning arced all across the creature thanks to the water spilling across it and the spears of ice embedded themselves in multiple points to a less impressive effect. I maintained the storm to prepare another barrage, meanwhile, Clara seemed to realise how pointless her rounds were.

"These tentacles aren't vital and the head is armoured!" Isaac shouted. "We need to look for another angle, which is rather difficult right now!"

"Like its underside?" Clara asked, splitting her rifle into her swords.

"That'd probably work, but don't count on doing enough damage on your own," Dusty said.

"I'm not, I just need to expose it," Clara said, and before anyone could do anything to stop her she rand over to the edge of the boat and leapt into the waters.

"Someone stop her!" I shouted, struggling to hold back the lightning I'd gathered. I could only hold that energy off for so long, and when it went off Clara would get hit too. The beast suddenly made a bubbling roar of pain and shited, Clara was clearly doing something right down there. The Kraken flailed its arms and brought one down on the ship, and I had to dodge out of the way as it nearly crushed me. My focus slipped and my storm dissipated, releasing all of its energy into the monstrosity. Lightning arced across it and the water around it, and a large chunk of ice formed on its mask. It started to tip forward, imbalanced by the miniature glacier, and its face dipped into the water with its back end exposed away from us. Standing on what was now the top of the monster was Clara, clutching on for dear life.

"You tipped it the wrong way Elith!" Clara shouted.

"Oh shut up, just keep hitting it!" I replied. Then I heard something, a cannon shot that didn't come from our ship, an instant later the Kraken's body lurched forward and Clara fell to the deck to be caught by Dusty. We all looked to see the Kraken dissolve into smoke to reveal another ship not far off from ours, it was far larger and featured many more cannons. Standing at the bowsprit was a tall figure donning a Grimm mask with bright parrot wings protruding from their back.

"That was quite the spot of trouble you lot were all in, I would say thanks would be in order," An amplified male voice cracked out from the other boat. "Hand over enough Lien or we fire again."

"How many Lien do you want?" Clara shouted at them before anyone else could reply.

"Who am I speaking with, you don't look to be the captain," The man replied.

"I'm Clara Lynn," Clara said, glancing around for the actual captain. "The captain seems to have tucked himself away somewhere safer." The person at the helm looked taken aback, taking a step backwards and I'm sure they would look confused without that mask on. They quickly regained composure and began to speak again.

"A captain cowardly enough to hide in a fight while his passengers risk life and limb?" The man said. "How very strange Ms Lynn, were I you I'd have a harsh word with your captain once we leave."

"You never answered how much we had to pay to make you leave," I shouted back.

"I wasn't speaking to you, human," They called back. "But the answer to your question is no price at all, we wouldn't dare strike at your ship now."

"Why's that?" Clara asked.

"That is a query best left for when our captain is on board, which she currently is not," The man answered. "Be on your way and may the current favour your path." The pirate ship started to back off and we were left in an empty dark sea with many questions swirling in our head.

"What was all that about?" Isaac asked.

"I don't really want to know, pirates are an unusual and superstitious folk," Dusty said. "Clara probably was the name of some long-dead captain of theirs or something."

"Let's just get back to the trip," Clara said.

 **Author's notes**

 **Among other things, Pirate crews also tend to believe dolphins to carry the souls of the drowned, that Krakens are heralds of significant events, and that mixing blood into alcohol makes it more intoxicating.**


	58. Seeking

Chapter 58

Seeking

* * *

Erik, Anima

* * *

The moon was up and we'd settled down, and that meant my hands were bound again. Gods these chains were uncomfortable, especially after having my hands free for a while. Draht was guarding over me and keeping watch, at least it wasn't Braun or Rippe. I hated those two, they were annoying, but Draht had her own way of bothering me.

"So how serious were you about that suggestion a while back, wanting to join up with us?" Draht asked.

"Yeah, anything's preferable to being with Cinder," I replied, wondering where she was going with this.

"I could talk with Mom about this because I think it's an interesting idea," Draht said.

"She clearly thought otherwise," I replied.

"She found it interesting, but there are rules we have to follow for things like this," Draht explained. "Blood is a big deal in this family, and you don't have a drop of it,"

"You guys keep going on about blood, what do you mean by that?" I asked. "Do you only marry relatives or something like that?"

"Don't be stupid Erik, that's disgusting," Draht said with an offended look on her face. "We give our blood to others, that's what we mean by needing our blood."

"Like a blood pact?" I asked.

"Exactly, both parties cut their hands and clasp hands," Draht explained. "Every Blythe can do this twice, once to make a blood brother or sister and the other to establish a spouse."

"In its own twisted way, that makes sense," I said, then I chose to move the conversation to the former option rather than the latter. "So that's why Heron asked if something happened between me and Isaac, she was wondering if he'd made me his blood brother?"

"Yeah, that would have posed an issue with our mission," Draht said. "We don't sell out a fellow Blythe, regardless of the award."

"Well that's, honourable," I said, it was too late to lie and say Isaac had made me his blood brother, I'd acted too oblivious before to say that now. "So what are you going to pitch to Heron?"

"Well Erik, prove you're worth something and that you're a bit more to keep around than these," Draht said, poking my arm muscles. "I'll talk with Mom about making a blood pact with you." I knew what this had been going towards, but I was still somewhat surprised at the offer.

"What do you mean 'more than these'?" I asked. "Wait, which kind of blood pact?"

"I mean that you need to prove that you're a likeable person," Draht explained. "And we'll see which type based on that, won't we?" She got up and walked over to the campfire to grab some leftovers from dinner that she'd been snacking on.

I leaned against the tree I was chained to and looked up at the stars, as had become a habit on this journey. I liked to look up at the stars because I knew that wherever my team was, they could see the same thing I could just by looking up. I hope they're coming to save me, but I can't think of how they'd know where to find me. I have faith in Elith though, if anyone can find- is someone sitting up there in the trees? I squinted and looked up at the branches that I'd seen some movement on, and sure enough, something was there. A short figure, clearly wearing a dark grey hooded cloak was crouched on the branches, silently observing the camp. They seemed to notice me looking at them and waved, then they backed off suddenly, disappearing into the trees.

"What're you looking at Erik?" Draht asked, walking back while chewing a rabbit leg.

"Nothing, just stargazing again," I replied quickly, she nodded in response.

"Right, you do that a lot," She recalled, she then offered a second rabbit leg to me. "I saw Braun swipe half your portions earlier, eat up." She set it down on my bound hands and I started eating.

"Thanks Draht," I said. For being a willing member of a cutthroat merc family, she sure was a nice enough person.

* * *

Elith, Anima

* * *

I was dreaming about something involving Isaac, pirates, and an unusually colourful Grimm with equally colourful language when I was awoken suddenly by blunt force trauma. I opened up my eyes to see I'd fallen out of my cot and slammed into the door of my room, it seems the ship had stopped finally. I pulled myself up and yawned, time to get moving, we don't want to waste any time. I opened up the door and walked out and made my way to the deck, Clara was predictably already up there and looking at the coastline.

"Morning Elith, check out where we are!" Clara called, I looked to see that instead of a port city we were along a forested coastline.

"Where exactly would that be?" I asked.

"I had a stern word with our captain like those pirates advised and he did this as an apology," Clara said happily. "He took a detour to sweep the coast for where Erik might have crashed."

"You're taking advice from pirates now?" I asked, my eyes examining the trees.

"It worked didn't it?" Clara asked. I nodded as I spotted a hole in the treeline that looked like something had hurtled through it.

"Looks like they crashed here, let's get off," I said. "Good work Clara, thanks."

"It was nothing, Isaac and Dusty are already on shore to see if the crash was here," Clara said. "They shouldn't be gone long."

"Good, are the horses on shore?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure they're happy to be off this ship," Clara said.

"Probably, but Têtu is weird enough to where I'm sure he liked the ship over land," I joked. Dusty and Isaac revealed themselves, they waved and Isaac gave a thumbs up.

"We found the wreck, we've got a trail!" Dusty yelled triumphantly, Clara and I hurriedly made our way to the shore and waved goodbye to the captain.

It took about ten minutes to reach the wreck, and when we got there it looked abandoned. I walked over to what looked like a campfire, I dusted it off and searched for warm embers to no avail.

"They've been long gone, this fire has been dead for quite a while," I said. "I'd say they left camp about four days ago." I searched around for anything noteworthy, it didn't take long to find two sets of comically large footprints leading out from the camp. Those had to belong to the twins, those two were going to make this tracking job so much easier.

"What'd you find Elith?" Isaac said. I looked to see him stuffing a few leftover supplies into his backpack.

"Your brothers just made our lives easier, we have a trail," I said. "Let's get moving." The four of us mounted our horses and I took the lead, following the crushed underbrush and imprinted dirt.

"Let's hope they never reach a road, it'd be a pain tracking them then," Dusty said.

"Don't jinx things like that Dusty," Clara warned.

* * *

Isaac, Anima

* * *

"I spy something green," Dusty said, we'd been on the trail for four days now and entertaining ourselves was becoming more and more difficult.

"Dusty I swear to the gods if you say leaves one more time," I growled.

"I would never," Dusty said. "The joke died after the fourth time."

"Is it Isaac's eyes?" Clara asked.

"Bingo," Dusty said.

"I spy something that doesn't exist," Elith asked.

"Well that's just not fair," Dusty protested. "What is it?"

"My ability to focus on tracking while you three play I spy," Elith answered.

"Fine, we'll be more quiet about it now," I said, lowering my voice to a whisper.

"No need, I've found something for you guys to distract yourselves with," She replied. "They seem to have set up camp again." Elith dismounted Têtu and walked over to examine the fire.

"Is it warm?" I asked.

"It's damp, seems like it rained this morning," Elith replied. "So I've got no guesses as to how far out they may be, but at least I know we're catching up."

"Fan out, look for the footprints," Dusty said, I searched and found the chain marks on a tree that signified where they held Erik. I'd checked these trees at each camp to make sure there wasn't bloodstains or other signs that Erik was suffering, it set my mind at ease to not see them.

"Bad news guys," Elith said. "It looks like they got horses, we should pick up our pace."

* * *

Clara, Anima

* * *

"So Isaac, your family seems like a big deal," I said. "Do you guys solely base in Vacuo or do you have family elsewhere?"

"Yeah, there are some Blythes in Mistral, though they turned out a bit better than those in Vacuo," Isaac explained.

"Meaning?" I asked.

"They're less bloodthirsty and most of what they do is legal, aside from a few shady jobs," Isaac answered.

"Should we worry about them rendezvousing with Erik's captors?" Dusty asked.

"No, they wouldn't wrap themselves up in kidnapping," Isaac replied.

"Good," Elith said. "We have enough problems as it is." We travelled silently for a bit longer and I got time to think, which was unfortunate. It had just been a rush of distractions almost this entire time so I hadn't had the chance to think more about the contents of Azoth's letter. But now the subject was drifting back to the front of my mind and I was not pleased about it because its implications were awful. It was a letter of confession addressed to anyone who would read it, explaining the event he often mentioned that had driven him out from Vacuo.

"Hey Elith, how fast are they going?" I asked, attempting to distract myself.

"About as fast as us, if we didn't need to track we could go faster," Elith explained. "But I'm sure they'll keep resting at night, I estimate catching up within five days if my initial guess was correct."

"Alright, that's still good enough time," I said. "At least they still won't get anywhere near Mistral."

 **Author's notes**

 **You know what piece of psychology I find interesting? Stockholm Syndrome.**


	59. Blood Rites

Chapter 59

Blood Rites

* * *

Elith, Llavel

* * *

We had stopped in the town of Llavel after a day and a half of travel, a rather large stop with some good shops, to restock our equipment and food. The locals seemed nice, it surprised me that these people existed so peacefully and fearlessly while outside the walls. It must take a special type of person to thrive out here, it was refreshing to see. The four of us had split up to find two things, supplies and information on which way the Blythes had gone when they passed through. I asked around, but no one seemed to recall five people on horseback coming through town within the past two days. I started to get frustrated, how does no one know about five outsiders passing through, that seems like a rare enough occurrence to recall. I walked to the next storefront but my movement was interrupted by someone putting a hand on my shoulder. I whirled around to see a tall dark haired man who didn't even flinch as I reached for Anguis.

"Watch it, lass, I don't aim to skewer you," He said apologetically. "I just came to offer up a piece of advice is all."

"And what advice would that be?" I asked.

"You've been asking around about a few things and I just wanted to tell you that you're asking the wrong way," He said. "People around here tend to be frustratingly tight-lipped if they don't see lien on their counter, advice from a once newcomer."

"They want money for a simple question?" I asked.

"Yeah, but the perk from that is that nothing is secret if you have ten liens on hand," The man explained. "Toss some lien or buy something at the shop and you'll find that information flows much more freely."

"Interesting," I said suspiciously. "Is there any price for this information?"

"No, just some advice," The man said. "I used to be new and confused like you."

"Alright, thank you then," I said, walking off.

"Enjoy your stay in Mistral," He said. I will now, knowing this bit of information. I walked into the next shop, dipping my hand into my wallet.

* * *

Clara, Anima

* * *

"Elith, how'd you and Dusty get those people to talk?" I asked. "They wouldn't tell me and Isaac anything."

"Everything in Mistral has a price," Dusty and Elith said simultaneously.

"That's decidedly vague, but I get what you mean," I said.

"I think someone should keep an eye on Elith's wallet, she might go on an information shopping spree if she's not careful," Isaac joked.

"I wouldn't spend all my money," Elith replied.

"I don't know about that Elith, it is information we're talking about," I teased. "I wouldn't be surprised if you blew it all on learning secrets."

"I hate both of you," Elith said simply.

"No you don't," Isaac said.

"You're right, I'm a bit too deep in the rabbit hole of your lives to not be entrenched," Elith conceded, Clara and Isaac chuckled at that.

"I think my life is more of a bear trap than a rabbit hole," Isaac joked. "A rabbit hole gives you more chances to back out."

"Sadly true, why'd you have to be the person to run into me in the emerald forest?" Elith joked. "I'm sure there are so many other people I could've found that didn't have a past like you."

"But your life would hardly be this interesting," Dusty said.

"He makes a fair point you know," Clara added.

"You're right, but is it worth it?" Elith asked. "Who am I kidding, of course, it is."

* * *

Erik, Anima

* * *

I thought to share a co-ed dorm with one bathroom was awkward, but this was quite honestly a bit worse. Heron had only gotten four horses and I was made to share a horse with Braun. And if sharing a horse with anyone was already cramped, sharing a horse with someone as large as Braun was even more so and I had to work very hard to stay balanced and not fall off. This would've been easier had I ridden with Draht or Heron, but Heron was reasonably insistent on not having me in such close proximity to either of them for that long. I'd eventually worked out a system to face backwards, allowing to lean against Braun and stabilize myself as well as interact with Draht.

"Good job back in Llavel earlier, you didn't even seem to think about calling out for help," Draht said.

"I'm a man of my word, I can say that much," I said.

"That's a good thing," Draht said. "I might have that discussion tonight after all." At this point, I feel as though she's just using her offer of discussing the blood brother deal as a trick to keep me docile in front of civilians and travellers, but it's worth a shot if she's actually being honest. Besides, all calling for help would get me is a few dead civilians and blood on my hands.

"She's not going to say yes, he's worth a bit much for that," Braun added.

"I didn't ask for your opinion Braun," Draht snapped back. "I have a plan to solve that issue."

"Care sharing your master plan?" Braun joked. "We all know how well your previous plans have gone."

"This one will actually work, shut up Braun," Draht said. "It's fairly simple, so simple even you would get it."

"Draht, I will break your horse's legs," Braun threatened.

"Fine, I'm sorry Braun," Draht apologised. "Anyways, Erik, hopefully, that discussion goes well."

We travelled for quite a while, a bit longer than normal, getting to a clearing a little bit after night fell before stopping to camp. I was set in the centre of the clearing and re-chained, Braun and Rippe set camp while Heron and Draht started having a discussion. My eyes scanned the treeline, it was dark but I still hoped to spot the cloaked person I'd seen a few nights before. I'd been hoping that whoever it was had been following us with the intent to break me out, but if they were just one person I didn't see that as plausible. I laid down and looked up at the stars, glancing at constellations and thinking to myself. I started to drift off before a bright light shined in my face, I opened my eyes to see that Rippe had started shining a flashlight at me.

"Stay awake Erik, sleep and you skip out on food," Rippe half-joked.

"Alright, alright," I said, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. I looked to see that the discussion between Draht and Heron was turning into more of an argument, seeing as both were making dramatic gestures and I could almost hear what they were saying. That didn't bode that well for the conversation, so much for that. I looked around again, scanning the treeline again and looking for anything distracting. Then I spotted it again, the hooded figure in the treeline. They were watching me as they stood on a branch, quiet and unmoving. This time they made no note of me looking at them, they simply stayed where they were and watched. Who were they? They and I seemed to have a long-range staring contest for the longest time before I heard someone walking up to me.

"You're spacing out again Erik, did you see something?" Rippe asked, trying to follow my gaze.

"Nothing, there's just not much to distract myself with," I said, the figure had once again vanished.

"You should be distracted by the fact that your fate's being discussed over there," Rippe said. "They've calmed down and Draht is being given a chance to explain."

"She hasn't even explained it yet?" I asked. they'd been talking for a while now.

"Well she opened with the main idea, and it blew up from there," Rippe said. "It's calmed down now."

"What do you think of Draht's idea?" I asked, I already knew Braun's thoughts on it.

"Well, like many ideas Draht has, it sounds good on the surface,' Rippe said. "You proved capable in our fight and I'd say you'd be a good recruit, but I think she's a bit naive thinking you're honest about staying and helping us."

"It's better than being returned to my mom, trust me when I say that I'll be true to my word," I said.

"I'm still doubtful, for obvious reasons," Rippe said. "Looks like the two of them are done talking, guess we'll find out the decision."

Heron walked directly up to me with a sour look on her face and Draht looked somewhat pleased.

"So, it seems you've caught Draht's curiosity with that silly suggestion from before," Heron said plainly. "She's made quite the case for you."

"How kind of her," I said.

"I don't need more of your demented clever remarks Erik," Heron growled. "They get quite annoying after a while."

"I'm sorry," I apologised.

"As I was saying, she made a case for your worth and potential for being made a Blythe," Heron said. "She also made a good plan with which we could still profit off your bounty, instantly paying off our losses."

"See, I do make good plans sometimes!" Draht said to Braun, sticking out her tongue.

"Quiet, so as the current head of the Blyth household I have given her permission to mark you as her blood brother," Heron said, Draht pouted a bit at that. "Don't complain, we went over why you couldn't."

"Couldn't what?" I asked.

"Irrelevant, you'll be on a form of parole," Heron said. "I don't trust you, you'll have to earn that."

"What exactly do you mean by that?" I asked.

"I mean that we'll still be keeping a close eye on you, you leave parole after we enact Draht's plan," Heron explained. "Then Draht will get to see whether or not she wasted one of her chances."

"That seems fair, I can't complain," I said.

"So, all of that aside," Heron said. "Hold out your hands." I did so and she undid my bindings, then she grabbed my left hand and removed a clean razor sharp knife. I withdrew my aura as Heron quickly slashed the blade across my palm, leaving a clean diagonal cut that immediately began to hurt intensely. I winced in pain as she moved to Draht and did the same thing, making her yelp in pain.

"And we just shake hands now?" I asked.

"You make it sound less ceremonial than it is, be more appreciative," Heron said. "But yes, the two of you clasp hands." Draht moved up and grabbed my hand, perfectly lining up the bleeding cuts. I was suddenly racked by the worst pain I'd ever felt, I could feel the blood rushing out from me rapidly. Then I felt relief as I felt that blood rapidly replenish itself, but the pain returned again in short order. I could see my aura dancing along my person in some kind of violent response. After a few seconds of this, I blacked out from the pain, falling to the forest floor.

* * *

Isaac, Anima

* * *

We followed the road for some time before Elith finally found where my family left the main road, making our lives easier. We were getting closer, every camp that we passed through was hours of progress gained on my family, and I could feel my excitement growing. I could finally close this out, free Erik and finally cast off this bad chapter of my family for good.

" _See, you're still a Blythe at heart,"_ My dad said. " _You're feeling it aren't you? That unrivalled thrill of approaching the end of the hunt."_ I'm not going to respond to him, all that does is confuse everyone and lead to my own personal annoyance. "Don't ignore me, I'll start screwing up your sleep again."

"The only thrill I'm getting is off nearing the end of this, not having to kill them," I said. "In fact, I'd prefer to avoid having to do that."

"What?" Dusty asked.

"I'll explain later," I said.

"You keep saying that every time you start talking to yourself," Dusty said. "You never do."

"I'll explain it to you, continue your conversation Isaac," Elith said.

" _That Elith girl is pragmatic, I can appreciate that,"_ Dad said. " _Where was she when that Hark girl was drawing you in."_

"In Atlas, and stop getting her name wrong," I said, my Dad grinned at my annoyance.

" _Don't be so literal, you know what I meant,"_ Dad said.

"Actually I don't, as with all your prior references to Elith," I said.

" _You're a blind idiot, your brothers are supposed to be the slow ones and I'm sure they'd have caught on by now,"_ Dad said mockingly.

"Caught onto what?" I asked.

" _If you can't see it, you don't deserve to know,"_ He replied. " _This is all stupid anyway, I started this conversation for something else."_

"I think you were trying to do a 'we're not so different you and I' speech and it immediately derailed," I prompted.

" _Right, how do you expect to not have to kill them?"_ He asked.

"I don't expect to, I'd prefer to," I replied. "Because I don't want more blood on my hands."

" _What? after what they've done you don't want them dead?"_ He asked.

"I don't want to kill off our family chapter Dad," I said. "I just want to redeem it, change the meaning of the name Blythe."

" _You're a fool, you don't deserve Alder's blood,"_ Dad growled.

"The only fool here is you, for not seeing how awful we've been for generations," I replied.

 **Author's notes**

 **They must put some pretty strong stuff in Blythe blood, maybe it's the alcohol. It's probably the alcohol, seeing as it knocked Erik out in seconds. Yeah, Eriks doesn't know it yet, but he's something of a lightweight. Weren't expecting that from the son of Qrow Branwen, were you?**


	60. Blut und Erlösung

Chapter 60

Blut und Erlösung

* * *

Erik, ?

* * *

Images swam in front of me, images of Isaac, Draht, Heron, and plenty of other people I couldn't recognize for the life of me. Each of them were saying things I couldn't make out, it was frustrating and confusing. Then I started to feel things, it felt like I was sinking. Thick liquid, not water but blood, was slowly engulfing me in a terrifyingly slow progression. I couldn't move, and I just had to wait as the blood slowly covered me up. Just as it enveloped my face I saw a wizened old man with a kind smile and dusty blonde hair appear before me and wave.

"Welcome to the family child," He said as the blood finished its job. I woke with a cold sweat and several questions. I opened my eyes to find that I was looking at a forest floor and a horse's rear end.

"Can we halt so I can get up?" I asked.

"Oh, he's finally awake!" I heard Draht say as the horse suddenly halted.

"Took him long enough, it only took Stehlen an hour when I did it to him," Heron said.

"How long was I out?" I asked as I pulled myself off the horse.

"I think you being sleepy factored in, seeing as you were out for nine hours," Draht said.

"That explains why my stomach is trying to murder me right now," I said. "I missed out on dinner and breakfast."

"I saved some for you," Rippe said, tossing a sack of something.

"That's, uncharacteristic of you," I said suspiciously, opening the bag to find salted provisions.

"You're my brother now, so I can't be as much of an ass as I was," Rippe said.

"At least for now, you have a clean slate," Braun said. "Screw with us and we might start up again."

"I won't antagonize you two if you don't antagonize me," I promised.

"Get back on the horse, you're sharing with Draht," Heron said. "It's time to share the plan now that you're up."

I pulled myself up onto the horse and we immediately set off down the path again.

"So, now that Erik is kin to us we can't be selling him out to this Cinder woman," Heron said. "Draht has come up with a good plan to get us the prize money as well as keep Erik with us."

"It sounds simple, but I swear it gets a bit more complex," Draht said. "We'll be turning him in, but then we'll be breaking him out."

"Cinder led the siege of Beacon, I doubt she'll be meeting us under armed," I said. "If we fight her I bet she'll have allies in the shadows for just that occasion."

"Exactly, that's why we get our own backup," Draht said. "We have some family in Mistral, they would help us if it meant protecting our latest Blythe."

"Exactly, with that many people backing us up keeping Erik out of reach will be quite easy," Heron said.

"What if they hunt us down?" I asked.

"I like your cynicism, it's good to plan for everything going wrong," Heron said. "But Cinder didn't hunt for you the first time and she won't do it this time, worst case scenario we get some second-rate mercs on our tail."

"I suppose you're right," I replied.

"Now that the briefing is done for now, how are you feeling Erik," Heron asked. "The blood rite feels different for everyone, are you feeling ill?"

"I feel great, like I just took six shots of espresso," I replied, noting how energized I felt.

"Glad to hear it, that's a good sign," Draht said. "Have you tried using your semblance?"

"No, why?" I asked, slowing down my perception of time. When I did, I noticed a few odd things, three to be exact. There was a ghostly image of Draht speaking, another of Heron speaking, and a third of Rippe speaking. I returned to normal speeds to see that only Rippe had opened his mouth.

"Our blood comes with a nice trait to it, our semblances are stronger and they get better faster," Rippe said. "Recently infused people generally get some new tricks immediately."

"How's that work?" I asked.

"It's all thanks to the Blythe who founded our branch in Vacuo, Alder Blythe," Heron said. "His semblance was carried in his blood, he could infuse people with it to grant them this boon, his blood is quite powerful and runs through all of our family."

"And now it also runs through your veins, that was a bit more than a symbolic blood rite," Draht said. "It literally changed your blood, your original blood is mixed with ours now."

"That's really interesting actually," I said. "This blood is a semblance enhancing drug essentially."

"Well put Erik," Heron replied. We continued silently for a bit and I was left to my thoughts. It was odd how quickly they've changed their tune after that blood rite, I guess it's just that important to them. I know they don't wholly trust me yet, but the amount that my treatment is changing is still surprising.

* * *

Elith, Anima

* * *

We entered a new clearing where I could already see a campfire, I quickly dismounted Têtu and ran to the fire. I reached for the ashes, they were damp.

"They doused the fire, it's still damp though," Elith said. "They couldn't have left that long ago." Isaac ran over to the centre of the field and looked at the ground, he raised his hand and gestured me to come over to him.

"Elith, there's a bloodstain here," He said.

"Brilliant, is it dry?" I asked, running over to it.

"Yes," Isaac replied. "Could you act a bit more concerned that I found blood where they keep Erik?"

"I know they won't kill him, why should I be overly concerned?" I asked. There was a pool of blood in the grass, mostly dry but it was still a fairly light colour. "Great, this didn't happen that long ago, we're very close to them."

"Alright, then let's waste no time, let's finish this up!" Dusty said. "Find the trail and let's get moving!" I quickly skimmed the perimeter and found where their horses departed. I remounted Têtu and led everyone to the path and we headed out once more.

Clara, Anima

We'd been riding for quite some time now at a hurried pace, I could tell Itzil was getting tired from galloping.

"Aren't you worried we'll lose the trail at this speed Elith?" I asked.

"Not at all, this trail is straightforward and they'd have a hard time trying to turn," Elith replied. "We can slow down when their path might be thrown into question."

"The horses are getting tired though," I said.

"They can rest once we get there," Isaac said. "For now we should catch up while we can."

"That's not the best plan you could have, there have been better ideas," A voice suddenly called out. We all pulled our horses to a halt as we looked for the new speaker, suddenly a figure dropped down from the trees in front of us. They wore a dark grey cloak and they had their hands resting on a sword and a dagger on their hips. They dropped their hood to reveal messy black hair, ruby lips, and dark blue eyes with dark circles beneath them. She looked like she recently went into her forties.

"And who might you be?" Dusty asked, reaching for his shields.

"No one you lot needs to fight," She replied.

"I'll definitely believe that seeing as you dropped down and immediately placed your hands on your weapons," Elith said sarcastically.

"Just a precaution, I was worried you lot might attack me for surprising you," She replied. "My names Lyra and I believe we've got similar aims."

"And what aims would those be?" I asked.

"You four are hunting down those kidnappers, are you not?" Lyra asked.

"Are they carrying a black haired kid named Erik?" Elith asked.

"Black-haired yes, not sure about the name," Lyra answered. "I think they've called him that."

"Then we probably have the same quarry, but why are you seeking them out?" Isaac said.

"I was on my way to Mistral for a family visit when I came across one of their camps, and I'm not one to standby when a kid is getting kidnapped," Lyra replied. "Problem is there's four of them and one of me." Elith narrowed her eyes and took a close look at the newcomer, after a moment Elith relaxed.

"Seems like you're telling the truth," Elith conceded. "Do you know where they are?"

"Of course, I wouldn't have left their trail if I didn't think I could find them again," Lyra said. "Follow me."

* * *

Isaac, Anima

* * *

I wasn't sure how I felt about being led off by a stranger, but Elith seemed confident the person was being honest and I trusted Elith. It didn't take long for Lyra to guide us to where my family had opted to rest at, it seems their horses had gotten thirsty so they stopped at a riverside clearing. Erik was standing out in the open, unbound, talking to Draht while the other three were helping working to purify some water for themselves. Why wasn't Erik bound, every other stop he was left bound. I reached for my Knixes and prepped to jump out, but Dusty grabbed me by the collar and pulled me back.

"Isaac, we have the advantage right now, don't go screwing it up," Dusty whispered.

"I agree, we should catch them off guard," Elith added, everyone nodded as well.

"Alright then, what do we do?" I asked.

"Among other things, getting Erik's attention might be a good idea," Clara whispered. "If we can convey that we want him to wait to strike then he could add to our assault's efficiency."

"That's good, what else can we do to make this go smoothly?" I asked.

"The water of that river is pretty murky, I could take a swim and pop out at one of them," Lyra suggested.

"I can send a clone to help with that," Elith said.

"And I can just bind whoever is left," Dusty said.

"Sounds like a plan," I said.

"Step one is contacting Erik," I said.

* * *

Erik, Riverside

* * *

"And that's the story of how Braun unintentionally caused three Atlas companies to collapse," Draht explained. "He could never repeat that if he tried."

"You guys have done some odd jobs," I noted. "Have you guys considered that knowing the people who employ your services actually sets you up with an effective stockpile of blackmail?"

"We have, but since we don't stoop to that level it's policy to burn records of jobs," Draht said.

"It was just an observation, not a suggestion," I said. I looked around at the treeline as I stretched, it was nice to not be bound during the breaks since I could finally fully stretch. Then I spotted something in the trees, for a second I thought that it was the cloaked person again but then I realized they looked more familiar than that. Brown hair, the slight glint of glasses in the light, it was Isaac. I suppressed a gasp and pretended to keep listening to the next tale Draht was telling me. Isaac placed a finger to his lips and gestured for me to wait, he pointed to the rivers and gestured wildly then pointed to me and punched his palm before pointing to Draht. I'm going to pretend that made any relative sense, I think I got a general idea.

"Erik, are you spacing out again?" Draht asked, waving a hand in front of my face.

"Yeah, sorry," I lied. "I'm still wondering how Braun could be responsible for corporate upheaval without killing someone."

"It's surprising, isn't it?" Draht said with a grin. Suddenly both of our attentions were caught by a loud splashing sound from the river. I saw two Eliths burst out of the water and take down Heron and a woman I didn't recognize entangling Rippe with a mess of wire coming out of a dagger. Then Dusty barreled out of the treeline with Isaac and Clara, Dusty stretched out his hands and golden chains quickly encircled Braun. Oh, that's what Isaac meant, time to do my part.

"What's going on?" Draht asked, reaching for her whip. I swatted the whip out of her hand and tackled her to the ground, swiftly pinning her. I activated my semblance to look around at the chaos and once again I noticed three odd things. I saw ghostly images of Rippe breaking loose, Braun growing larger than Dusty could handle, and three blue-eyed Beowolves bursting from the trees. When I stopped using my semblance I only saw Braun looking focused.

"Dusty, pull him over and let go!" I shouted as Draht struggled.

"Why?" Dusty asked as he swiftly tugged Braun to the ground and cancelled the chains. He got his answer as Braun suddenly grew taller that the trees around us.

"I warned you Draht, looks like you wasted one of your chances," Heron shouted as she struggled with the two Eliths, eventually crushing their skulls against the ground and dissipating them. Rippe slipped free from the tangle and kicked the woman into the river. Draht then headbutted me suddenly and made my grip slacken, letting her stagger free.

* * *

Erik, Isaac, Clara, Elith, Riverside

* * *

"It's six against four, how about you all surrender?" Dusty proposed as they all squared off.

"You aren't off with the numbers, but you're off about skill," Heron spat at him. "All four of us are well familiar with how to kill people, and at most only two of you are."

"That doesn't bother me too much," Isaac said. "We kicked your asses when there were less of us."

"That's because we were only aiming to kill one of you, now it's free game," Heron growled, readying her arm blades.

"I'm sure that changes everything," Elith said.

"Tell yourselves you'll win, whatever brings you comfort," Clara said, three beowolves coming out from the brush with icy blue eyes.

"This is where this ends, one way or another," Isaac said.

 **Author's notes**

 **I've written sixty chapters of this. Wow.**


	61. Das Ende

Chapter 61

Das Ende

* * *

Erik, Isaac, Clara, Elith, Riverside

* * *

The two parties stood still, only seconds passed, yet the tension made it feel like aeons to the fighters. Eyes examined weapons, stances, and demeanour or narrowed in hate or suspicion. All were cautious to make the first move in this deadly dance, the start had to be perfect for whoever moves first and no one was wholly confident. It was Braun who made the first movement, shrinking down to being just a bit larger than normal before charging straight for Isaac. His charge was immediately assisted by Heron who charged along with her son and caught the blow Dusty had been aiming to unleash. Isaac failed to dodge in time as Braun clasped his sides and smashed his brother into a tree, splintering the trunk and causing the tree to collapse.  
"Put. Him. Down." Elith growled at the behemoth, reaching for her dust pouch.  
"You aren't pulling that shit again!" Heron shouted, shoving Dusty aside and kicking Elith off balance. Rippe was left facing Lyra, the woman was quite swift and was proving difficult to land blows on. Unfortunately, Rippe was not one to leave openings for a fast fighter, he had learned to avoid slow swings and stick to quicker blows with his greatsword. Clara's Beowolves circled the clearing, eyeing any who might think to flee. Draht looked concerned, looking between Erik, Rippe, Braun, and Heron as though she were having trouble catching up to the circumstances.  
"You can sit this out you know, it doesn't have to be a fight," Erik suggested to Draht.  
"I can't just back off of from this, I'm no traitor," Draht growled, tightening her grasp on her whip.  
"When you think about it, you're fighting your family either way," Erik said calmly. "It's a matter of who you really want to help now, not backing your blood."  
"And what makes you think I want to help you lot?" Draht asked, lashing out at Erik. Erik swiftly rolled away as Draht began weaving a web of electricity, still looking conflicted.  
Isaac struggled with Braun to little success, it was hard to match the strength of his brother when he was increasing his size.  
"Blood traitor, I'll break you," Braun growled, slamming Isaac into another tree. This distracted Elith, as she glanced away for a moment Heron slashed out at her and knocked Elith to the ground. Instead of getting up, Elith raised her hand and expended some gravity dust from her clothes to send Heron flying into the clearing. Elith floated up to her feet with hate burning in her eyes, or maybe it was actually fire, it was hard to tell. Meanwhile, Lyra fished a pale white crystal from her pockets and smashed it against the ground, causing an immense cloud of steam to surround her and Rippe. Draht looked over and the cloud and Erik took the chance to slip Invicta off his arm and throw it into the hanging web of electricity. The gauntlet absorbed the electricity and slammed into Draht's face, giving her quite a shock. Erik then rushed forward and slammed the hilt of Homicida into her face, making her stagger back to the ground. Clara rushed in to help Erik, raising her swords and preparing to fight.  
"Hey Erik, were you expecting us?" Clara asked.  
"More like I was hoping, I wasn't expecting you guys so soon," Erik replied. "Let's hope my absence didn't whittle down on the team skills."  
"You think we need you around for that?" Clara asked.  
"Will you two shut up?" Draht asked as she pulled herself up.  
"SandBlade- scissor," Erik said with a smirk, immediately kicking off to the right as Clara dashed to the left. The two of them then began to quickly cut at Draht by continuously dashing by and slashing from both sides. A loud blast sounded throughout the clearing as Isaac managed to slip one of his knixes into the shotgun mode and fired into Braun, forcing Braun to drop Isaac to the ground.  
Isaac quickly rolled behind Braun and began circling to avoid getting into his view.  
"Of course it took a cheap trick to get yourself out," Braun growled. "Man up and face your death brother!"  
"He won't be dying today!" Elith growled, Braun looked to see a shimmering aura of heat surround Elith that singed the ground and kept Heron from getting close enough to strike.  
"That's where you're wrong kid," Heron said, absconding from the situation and rushing To Isaac only to be hit by Lyra who had just launched from the steam cloud with great speed. The steam started to dissipate to reveal a heavy breathing Rippe, marching his way over to Draht to help her out.  
"Technomancy- ddos!" Erik shouted, pointing to Braun before turning to face Rippe. Elith immediately withdrew a wind crystal and dispelled the heat by blasting it into Heron, Elith quickly crushed the crystal and channelled half its energy to Isaac's Knixes and the rest into her own weapons. A wind began whipping around their weapons, adding great speed to their strikes as they began to both lash out at Braun in a blinding series of attacks. The attack was greatly effective, causing Braun to shrink down to normal size so he could maintain his aura. Draht looked around before waving her whip in front of her to create cover and then dashed towards the river only to be intercepted by two of Clara's Beowolves. Rippe was confused by the act but struck out at Erik and Clara in a mighty blow. The greatsword struck both of them and knocked them over, Erik quickly got up and helped Clara up as well. Erik dived for Invicta and quickly slipped it back on and shifted it to the great shield form in time to catch Rippe's next blow.  
"SandBlade- Ricochet," Erik called, Clara immediately leapt towards Erik who deftly caught her on his shield and flung her towards Rippe so she could perform an accelerated dropkick. Rippe reeled and almost fell over before being pushed back to his feet by Braun who had run over to assist him.  
"Get back here, you were talking about manning up just seconds ago!" Elith jeered.  
"You get a completely different air during these fights," Isaac noted.  
"Your family ticks me off in more ways than one," Elith replied, raising Anguis and Damnum as Heron approached them, her every movement becoming blurred. She rushed straight past Elith, smirking as a slash from Elith caught nothing but thin air, and came right up to Isaac. Isaac stabbed out at Heron but found himself easily disarmed and subjected to a series of slashes from Heron. Elith grabbed at Heron and found a grip, pulling her back as she performed a final slash that shattered Isaac's aura.  
"Back off me you brat," Heron growled, headbutting Elith and rushing back to Isaac. She slashed out and Isaac almost dodged, her cutting directly into his left eye. Isaac yelled in pain and clasped his hands to his eye, and Heron was sent flying by a blast of gravity from Elith. Draht quickly slew the two Beowolves, but hesitated instead of fleeing over the river. She turned and looked at Isaac yelling in pain and Erik desperately working to hold off both Braun and Ripped. Erik bashed out and kept Clara in cover behind him, but his defence could only be feasible for so long against both of these assailants.  
"We can't get an angle on them, we should fall back to Elith and Dusty," Clara said.  
"Heron's already being enough to deal with on their part, we shouldn't add to the problem," Erik replied, bracing against another strike from Rippe. The blow never came, both Braun and Rippe halted as they seemed to lock up. Braun collapsed to the ground, his aura spent, still twitching from the shock of electricity. Draht looked morose as she raised for the second strike against Rippe, Erik helped by bashing him off balance as her whip wound around Rippe's arm and pulled him to the ground.  
"You made the right choice Draht," Erik said. "I'm glad."  
"I didn't make it for you," Draht said with a derisive huff. "I made it for Isaac." The three of them turned to face Heron, who was looking quite crestfallen at the sight of Rippe and Braun falling unconscious.  
"Damn you Draht, you unappreciative little shit!" Heron shouted, drawing the Blythe family dagger. "We had this and you ruined it!" She ran towards Braun and Rippe, and before anyone could do something about it she ran the dagger over both their throats.  
"Mom, you've lost it!" Draht shouted. "What have you done?"  
"No, you've lost it," Heron screamed, raising the dagger again. "You'll have no place at Alder's table, think on that."  
"Mom no!" Draht shouted as Heron plunged the blade into her chest, twisting it while laughing maniacally.

* * *

Elith, Riverside

* * *

It didn't take long for Heron to die, she knew how to make the job quick at least. We were all left in silence aside from Isaac's moans of pain, after some attention to his wounds we found that the eye beyond healing. With some impromptu field surgery, we were able to somewhat painlessly remove the dead eye once his aura returned, after which he grinned at me.  
"This means I get to wear an eyepatch right?" He said, clearly Heron hadn't damaged his insufferable wit.  
"No, it means we're getting you an eye replacement," I replied.  
"I'm not getting cybernetics, that's hardly as badass as an eyepatch," He replied, mockingly pouting.  
"How are you worried about whether or not you'll get an eyepatch Isaac when we have the small matter of our families corpses to deal with here," Draht said as she walked up. "Are you going to help me bury them correctly or not?"  
"Yeah, please excuse us Elith," Isaac said, his mood becoming a bit more sombre. "You guys have rope, right?"  
"Yeah, why do I ask?" Clara said, tossing over some rope from her backpack.  
"It'd bother you if I answered that question," Draht said.  
Draht and Isaac went off, Draht began tying nooses and Isaac began digging out some shallow bowl-like graves. Erik walked over and slid to the forest floor next to me, followed by Clara and Dusty, Lyra was still in the process of coming to from the beating Rippe had given her. We all let out a collective sigh of relief, a moment of silence passed before Erik finally spoke.  
"What the fuck took you guys so long?" Erik asked.  
"We could've been here sooner if it weren't for Isaac being framed," Clara said.  
"Also, shut up and be happy we got here in time," I said.  
"That's fair," Erik replied. "So who's the cloaked lady?"  
"A concerned huntress who seems to have passed by your camp by chance," Dusty replied. "I see now why she chose to wait for help rather than attack solo, she's clearly not the most competent huntress."  
"Ah," Erik replied, silence fell over us for a while longer before he spoke up again. "Does anyone know how to break it to someone that you recently became related to them? I'm open to suggestions."  
"Come again?" Clara asked.  
"For reasons that I will elaborate on later, I may or may not be related to Isaac now," Erik said.  
"You were kidnapped for less than three weeks, what on Remnant did you do Erik," Elith asked. "Do I even want to know?"  
"It's an odd story that I don't entirely get, I need to ask Isaac and Draht about it first," Erik replied. "And also break the debatably good news to Isaac."  
"Wait, you what!" Isaac suddenly shouted from where he and Draht were working. "Erik! Get over here!"  
"Nevermind, seems subtlety is out the window," Erik said with a sigh. "I'll be back." Erik pulled himself up and walked off towards the odd burial site.

* * *

Erik, Riverside

* * *

"Erik, please tell me Draht is lying about making you her blood brother," Isaac said. "I just need you to tell me she's kidding."  
"She's not," I replied.  
"I gave you one simple task and you failed me, Erik, how could you," Isaac said, smirking slightly. "Well, I suppose this means I'm going to have to welcome you into the family, seeing as I'm the new head of it."  
"No you aren't, I am!" Draht protested. "The head of the family is the eldest woman remember?"  
"Unless all of the women are underage, in which case the eldest male is head until one of the women become eighteen," Isaac replied. "I didn't forget the rules Draht."  
"You're taking this surprisingly well," I said.  
"Well, I'd be more pissed if you two had gotten married or if you had gotten wrapped up in the family business," Isaac said. "Thankfully you're a Blythe here and now when I'm working to change this family name up."  
"I'll be glad to help with that," I said.  
"Start by helping us do this burial," Isaac said, he had me help use the nooses to string up the corpses by their feet to where they hung just over the bowl-graves. "Draht, hand me the family dagger, time for the gruesome part." I averted my eyes as Isaac quickly set to the gruesome job he referred to.  
"Blythe's have the weirdest rituals, you know that, right?" I asked.  
"I'm well aware it's awful to you, but it's tradition to us," Draht replied. "But get used to it, you're one of us now after all."  
"I know, I'm sure I will," I said with a sigh.  
"Okay, so now that this task is done," Isaac said, letting loose a long sigh. "How about we go catch up with each other, it seems like we've all had quite the experience."

* * *

Clara, Riverside

* * *

Night had fallen as we all told tales of what we'd been through, sharing tales of fights and odd interactions. Lyra eventually woke up and apologized for having been as useless as she'd been before falling asleep. Draht stayed reticent through most of the sharing, the poor girl probably feels awful. I know she made the right choice in the end, but in doing so she indirectly caused the death of most of her family. She can't be feeling to great right now, how odd that I'm feeling sorry for a person who not so long ago was actively trying to kill me.  
"Sounds like you guys had a far more active trip than we did," Erik said.  
"Erik, you got attacked by an immense murder of Nevermore and survived, and also crash land in a forest which was also impressive to survive," I said. "Also, do I need to remind you that eighty percent of your trip was spent as a kidnapping victim?"  
"You make some fair points, but being a captive was honestly not that awful," Erik replied. "And Nevermore are commonplace, you guys fought a giant Kraken and killed it!"  
"It was killed by a pirate crew," Elith corrected.  
"Still, you survived a Kraken and a pirate crew, all I'm saying is that you guys had some more out of the ordinary things go on," Erik said.  
"What, becoming a blood brother to me wasn't interesting?" Draht said, a weak grin flashing across her face. "I'm hurt."  
"You have me there," Erik admitted. "I was definitely not expecting what that was going to do."  
"No one does," Draht said.  
"So where do we go now?" I asked.  
"We could head back to Vale, but that's further out than Mistral," Dusty said. "If we go to Mistral we could catch an airship to Vale, I'd be able to afford one if we go there."  
"But my Mom is there," Erik said.  
"She won't know we're coming, she'll be too occupied with whatever her plans in Mistral are," Elith said. "Speaking of her plans, aren't you the least bit curious about them?"  
"I am, but I'm more afraid than curious," Erik replied.  
"I think fear dwarfs in importance to figuring out what someone bent on destroying kingdoms has planned," Elith replied. "And you shouldn't be afraid, you have all of us after all."  
"You know Elith, in your own insensitive way, you're actually fairly persuasive," Erik said.  
"Her bluntness has its moments," I said with a chuckle.  
"We should all get to sleep, we can make our decision in the morning," Dusty said. "We'll have two people up at a time, Clara and Draht take first shift,"  
"Alright," I said, Draht just nodded.  
It didn't take long for everyone to fall asleep, soon Draht and I were left sitting in awkward silence.  
"Why did you choose to switch sides in the end?" I asked.  
"Because of Isaac, I saw him crying in pain and I just recalled all the times when I was younger that he had been the only truly nice person to me," Draht said. "Whenever I had a plan he would humour me, and when I was feeling guilty about my first kill he sympathized with me rather than chastising me."  
"If you felt guilty why'd you stay with them?" I asked. "Why not run like Isaac?"  
"I didn't run because I thought I was in the wrong, how could I have been right when most of my family thought otherwise?" Draht said. "I thought I was just being stupid for feeling like I did, so I kept it to myself and blended in."  
"I'm sorry you went through that, I can't imagine what it was like for you," I replied.  
"I'm sorry for trying to kill you, and I get it if you don't trust me," Draht said. "You shouldn't trust me, but I hope I can at least somewhat earn that."  
"I hope so too," I replied. "I like to believe people can change." The two of us continued to have small talk for a while before we woke up Dusty and Erik to take the next watch and we fell asleep.

* * *

Isaac, Anima

* * *

It had been three days since we'd set out from that river, we'd been taking the roads and making our way to Mistral at a more leisurely pace than we'd had before. It was so nice to not have to fall asleep on horseback anymore, though I don't think I'll ever truly recover from those aches. Lyra had been happy to accompany us to Mistral, 'strength in numbers' she had said. She was a pretty withdrawn travelling companion, not talking much and frequently writing in a little notebook of hers. Draht had started to come out of mourning and began being her more talkative self again, taking every opportunity to try and prove that she was helpful and nice. I wasn't wholly sure of her intentions, but she seemed honest enough and Elith didn't think there was much in the way of ulterior motives past Erik. We'd recently stopped at a small town to resupply and I was able to get a simple leather eyepatch for my left eye. Elith was still insisting that I should get it replaced, but I wasn't keen on the idea seeing as having a cybernetic eye put me a step closer to looking like my dad. All in all the trip was going well aside from my dreams, which my dad was continuing to plague. Though he was being less obnoxious than he had been, apparently he was somewhat pleased with what had happened. I'd noticed something odd about him though, his form was not glowing as brightly as it used to and he was beginning to flicker from time to time. I truly hope that means what I think it does because I'm growing really sick of his presence.  
"Let's stop here to feed the horses, they look tired," Clara called.  
"Alright," Dusty replied, we all pulled our horses to a halt and dismounted. The horses quickly set to feeding and we all started snacking on things from our backpacks, while everyone was distracted I decided to walk off and address a personal problem. As I walked out of sight, my dad walked into view.  
" _About time you come to speak with me,"_ He said. " _I've only been demanding it for three days."  
_ "I know, but I'm tired of people looking at me like I'm nuts or something," I replied.  
" _I think you and I both know what's happening to me, and I just wanted to say some things to you before I can't say them ever."_ He said.  
"Dad, you've already told me to go fuck myself plenty of times, one more won't change anything," I joked.  
" _This is serious you little shit, so listen up,"_ He growled. " _Your head of the family for three years and there are some things that I should tell you for that."  
_ "I'm not continuing the family business, it's not happening," I answered.  
" _All I want to know is that you'll keep the traditions and the family alive, I don't care what the family does as long as it doesn't fade to nothing,"_ He retorted. " _Also, make sure Draht doesn't fuck things up too badly once she gets control, I always thought that the age for being in control should be twenty-one instead of eighteen."_  
I will don't worry," I replied, confused by the sudden change of tone  
" _Also, get the eye replaced when you can,"_ He advised. " _It may be symbolic to you, but it's frankly just a liability."  
_ "I'll, consider it," I said.  
" _Alright, one last thing, lean in closely,"_ He said as his form began to flicker a bit, I leaned towards him. " _I always fucking hated you, go fuck yourself."_ And with that, his form faded into oblivion, never to be heard from again, what fitting last words.  
Suddenly I felt a shove from my left, I turned to see who had pushed me and Elith was standing there.  
"Why?" I asked.  
"Because I wanted to prove a point, you didn't see that coming," Elith answered. "You have a giant blind spot, nothing good could possibly come from it."  
"How about you just let me make my own decision about this?" I said.  
"I'm just worried about your safety, and this definitely pertains to that," Elith countered.  
"I'm sure Erik and Clara are as well, but you don't see them shoving me to prove a point," I replied. "What makes you extra concerned?"  
"Well, I umm," Elith said, seeming at a loss for words.  
"You what?" I asked.  
"I just worry about you a lot, okay," Elith replied, crossing her arms. "I care about you and don't want you getting hurt."  
"Thanks, but why care more about me?" I said.  
"I swear I'm going to slap you for making me say it," Elith said.  
"Say what?" I asked. Elith let out an extended exasperated sigh before punching me in the shoulder. "Hey, I wasn't withholding information, I thought that was the deal?"  
"That I like you imbecile," Elith said. "I think a punch is fair for how dense you are."  
"Wait, you what?" I asked, facepalming. Gods I'm an idiot, she was right about deserving that punch.  
"I'm not repeating myself," Elith said, walking off. "Come on, we're about to head out."  
"You can't just walk off after saying something like that!" I said, chasing after her.  
Erik, Isaac, Clara, Elith, Anima  
The group left the rest and continued on their way, setting forth to their common destination. Talking, laughing, and thinking about what their travel might bring, ignorant to what lurked quite close to them. Not far off from where they walked a creature drifted above the forest floor, floating as it dragged spiked tendrils upon the ground behind it. **  
Author's notes  
To my more knowledgeable readers or my German readers, you might notice that this chapter was called 'the end'. While I don't mean that as 'this is the final chapter', I do mean that it's the last one you'll be seeing for a while. I'm taking a hiatus for a while to work on my actual books, and to refocus on a few other things. This isn't the last you'll see of team EICE, I promise I'll be returning to them at [indeterminate time] in a new story. In the meantime, thank you to anyone who has read this far and particular thanks to my brother and 'MEWTWO is awesome' for being the main drivers for me to write this much of my story.**


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